Take me away
by A Pretty Little Love
Summary: Aria and Ezra are broken up but when she feels like her life is falling apart she knows that there is only one person she can truely count on. Once the two go on a road trip to 'get away' from the problems Aria feels over run by can they really fight the feelings they have for each other? Or do they even want to? Ezria fanfiction
1. Chapter 1 the breaking point

**Chapter 1- the breaking point**

Aria POV

My life was a mess. I have a psycho after me, My parent are fighting, I'm still that girl who was friends with Ali, I've been framed for murder, My brother is into god knows what kind of trouble, and the one good thing in my life has been ruined. My relationship with Ezra Fitz.

All I had left was my friends but is that really enough? I mean they have enough going on in their own life. It always got to me, how my life had gone from simple, normal, typical and maybe even average (although things with Ali could get crazy) and turned into this confusion, madness, and mayhem. It always turned into a game of what if. What if I had never met Allison? What if I hadn't seen my dad cheating? What if I hadn't moved to Iceland? What if I hadn't moved back? I could do this all day but it would never get me anywhere because this is how my life worked out. Now not to sound too "Bella Swan" but can I really begrudge the way things turned out? If things hadn't been like this I would never have met Ezra. Sure I would have met Mr. Fitz, but not Ezra. He simply would have been as Emily said what seems like ages ago "the new teacher who's really hot" or as spencer had said "one of the teachers you do want to see on a bike". He would have been the same amazing guy but I would have never known, which is hard to imagine since he was the only light I had in my cloudy days. The only one I could always count on.

I turned to the clock and noticed it read 9:45. Before I knew it I found myself in my car driving the all too familiar route to his apartment. I quickly make my way up the stairs and walk straight to the door marked 3B without thinking twice. I knock on the door and pray that he is home. I wait and each passing second feel like hours. Why should he even be here? It's a Friday night, and he's a young, single, good looking man. He's smart and kind and god is he ever gorgeous. Those piercing electric blue eyes make my heart jump and I can still remember the feel of his dark wavy hair wrapped around my fingers. The feeling of his lips on mine and how his hands running along my skin made me want him more than anything else in the world. But he's not mine anymore and that was entirely my fault so what could I do?

I tried to protect him; I had to because I love him more than anything. I was willing to suffer, to want him, to miss him and to pretend that I was over him every day. Just so he would be able to move on, on to something, someone better. I mean clearly he could do so much better than me. He could find someone smarter, prettier, but most important of all someone his age. Someone who wouldn't be putting him in danger everyday they were with him. Someone who he didn't have to feel guilty about wanting. Someone who he could sleep with, without breaking the law. Someone who wasn't just a sixteen year old high school girl. Someone who wasn't his student. I knew that he didn't see me like that, he never had. I had always just been his aria, age had never mattered, but I had to keep myself pushing away from him. I wouldn't destroy his life just because I was selfish. What was I about to do? I didn't know why I was here. All I knew was my life was falling apart and I found myself at his doorstep. I waited and realize I had been standing there for minutes, clearly he wasn't home. Suddenly I broke down, something I very rarely do but I had hit my breaking point. My safe haven was locked and there was nowhere left to go. My emotions began pouring out as the tears and sobs escaped. As I slunk down to the ground against Ezra's door I went into hysterics. I didn't know what to do so I sat there until I cried myself to sleep, in the middle of my former English teacher's apartment hallway.

Ezra POV

I had spent a painstakingly long night out with hardy. Ever since Aria had left me I had been heartbroken. So Hardy decided it was his responsibility to help me out but the last place I wanted to be was in some bar. None the less some bar where the majority of the girls were half naked and throwing themselves at anyone who glanced their way. God, how did he find these places? Why did these places even exist? Didn't anyone believe in love anymore, or did they only believe in drunken one night stands? What a sad world we live in. It was times like these when I wished I could live inside the pages of great works such as gone with the wind, where love was real. No, it was times like these, every day, every minute, every second that I wished I had aria. Sure maybe our love wasn't traditional, or perfect, or even accepted, but it was real. It was true and passionate and I knew that she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But I suppose she didn't want to live with the hiding, I mean why would she. She has her whole life ahead of her and if she didn't want me, if I wasn't what made her happy I wanted her to go out and find what did.

"Go talk to her." hardy said.

"Ezra." he said "EZRA!" he finally shouted snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked unsure of what exactly had been going on.

"God stop thinking! Go talk to her!" he said annoyed that I was ruining his night, not that I hadn't warned him. I told him specifically (about ten times) I didn't want to come but he wouldn't take no for an answer. Well now he was paying the price, he should have left me alone at home with the company of a good novel.

"Who?" I asked not really caring what he answered. None of these girls were aria and she was all I wanted. "Her" he jerked his head in the direction of a tall blonde.

"She has been looking at you all night" Hardy answered.

"Nah, man she's not my type." I respond hoping that would end his attempts to set me up with random women.

"What, tall, blonde, sexy, and totally into you isn't your type?" Hardy shot back sarcastically. I looked at the girl. Yes she had nice long legs and a great figure. Her dress hung tightly to her body showing all her curves and was revealing enough that there wasn't much left to the imagination. Sure maybe she was the kind of girl guys searched for to pounce on, she was probably the kind of girl he would have pounced on back when he was going to Hollis but now he wasn't looking for a play toy. He was looking for a relationship, something meaningful, some depth. This girl was more like a kiddy pool.

"No, not really." I said.

"Uh, just go." he pushed me in her direction and I tripped over some people walking right before me. As I stumbled my hand brushed along her ass and she turned to me.

"I'm so sorry! My friend shoved me and I tripped over some people and" I muttered a quick apology.

"No, its fine." she said. "You know you could feel some more." she said seductively as she pulled my hand and placed it on her ass. Really? Were people really like this? Without another word I walked away. I went over to Hardy's table to tell him I was leaving before I went to my car.

"This is stupid and ridiculous and I'm going home." I said as I got over to him.

"Dude, she put your hands on her ass! She wanted you and you just walked away! What is your problem?" he asked incredulously. Now I was frustrated.

"I don't want some half-dressed girl who doesn't even know me asking me to feel her up!" I say sounding a bit harsher than I intended but I was reaching my breaking point.

"Your little girl isn't coming back Ezra! Get over her!" He yelled. I was about to leave but my head snapped back around as the words came out of his mouth. I wasn't a violent person but it took all my will power not to hit him.

"ARIA is not a 'little girl'!" I snapped at him and left. I got into my car knowing I was fine to drive; I had only had one whiskey. I checked the clock, 10:00 pm it read. It was a half hour drive home from this place he had brought me to since of course rosewood would never have such a scene. I turned on the radio hoping it would keep create some sort of distraction. The last thing I wanted was to have any extended period of time with nothing to do. That's when my mind would wander, and it always ended up on her. I pulled into my parking spot and headed up the stairs planning on going straight to bed, not that I had anything better to do.

After walking to level three I was shocked as I made my way down my hall to see a girl laying there against a door. Was she hurt? No just sleeping, this is odd. As I got closer I saw it wasn't just a door, it was my door. And it wasn't just a girl. It was Aria.


	2. Chapter 2 missing you

**Hi, I just wanted to say thank you so much for the amount of views I got already! I appreciate the constructive criticism and hope that the changes I made will let people enjoy the story more. This is my first story and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. I would love to hear some opinions on the story so please review! **

**Disclaimer – I don't own pretty little liars, sadly **

Chapter 2 – Missing you

Ezra POV

Why was she here? She very clearly had ended this, but maybe she just needed somewhere to stay. I instantly felt guilty for not being here when she needed me. As I looked down at her I noticed that her makeup was ruining and her face was streaked with tears, also she was sound asleep. I couldn't wake her. I decided to gently scoop her up into my arms and bring her in, the whole time she didn't budge.

I placed her down gently on my bed and admired her for a second before thinking about what could have brought her here. Would she leave in the morning without speaking to me? Wait she should be at home. Her parents would clearly be worried if they noticed Aria missing. But I didn't want her to leave. We hadn't spoken in months and finally she was here.

I grab her purse and open it to find her cell phone. This was obviously stupid, I knew that but I wasn't going to run my time with her. I wouldn't just throw it out the window. Now, who to call. All of Aria's friends knew. I've known that since spencer got into the car that day to tell me about aria and Jason. Hm, spencer was probably the best idea, she was mature, responsible, and she seemed perfectly okay with me and Aria. I took a deep breath nervous to see how this might play out.

The phone rings and soon after spencer picks up the phone. "Hey Aria, can I call you back? Me and toby are kind of busy" she breathes into the phone.

Oh god, what a mistake. The last thing I need to hear is one of my former students getting busy with her boyfriend. "Um, actually this isn't Aria" I reply awkwardly.

Suddenly I hear spencer's heal clicking along the ground through the receiver and she slams a door shut. "Who is this?" she sounds tense and nervous.

"It's Ezra." I say and I hear a sigh from the other end.

"Oh, really? Um well that was awkward then." She sounds far less anxious but now embarrassment takes over.

"It's fine. I was just" I try to tell her but spencer cuts me off.

"I mean it's not like you and Aria have never... Oh my god! I'm sorry I don't know why I said that!" she stammers, I don't think I have ever heard spencer less composed than this. She always seemed so put together, perhaps I should have called Hannah and just put up with the jokes.

"It's fine spencer" I say calmly but a bit uncomfortable. I mean how much does Aria tell them? Clearly they share.

"May I ask why you are calling from Aria's phone?" She says finally coming back to the point.

"Right, well I got home a little while ago and found her asleep in the middle of the hall in my apartment building. I don't know why she's here but she looked like she had been crying and I couldn't bare to wake her. I mean you know how long it's been since she has even talked to me so I can't let her leave before we talk." I stammered hoping that I made sense.

"So you want me to cover for her for the night?" spencer asked although she already knew.

"Yes, if you could that would be much appreciated." I told her hoping that it wouldn't be a problem.

"Well my mom already knows that toby's here so I'm not sure I'm the best alibi. But I will call Hannah and then text you on Aria phone, that way you don't have to do this again" she joked and laughed a bit.

I laughed too mostly at the awkward situation we have gotten ourselves into.

"Thank you spencer. Not just for tonight but for being okay with me and Aria. I really do love her." I said and then realized how stupid that may have been considering she broke up with me months ago.

"I know and if you make her happy than I'm glad. She would probably kill me for telling you this but just so you know she misses you." spencer admitted to me but I couldn't make sense of it. Why did she breakup with me then? Well there's a difference between missing someone and wanting them back, and I guess I'm going to find out exactly what that is.

"Thank you." I say quietly and she hangs up on the other end. Now I just wait. I'm sure that one of the girls can cover for her but I don't want to get my hopes up before I hear from spencer again.

Then I hear a beeping come from the phone as I go to find the blankets and pillows to set up my 'bed' on the couch. "Hey Fitzy, heard you and Aria are having a sleepover! I will cover for you. Have lots of fun! – Hannah" I read silently to myself. I couldn't help myself from laughing, that girl certainly knew how to break tension. Thanks Hannah I typed back. I decided to wait until the morning to talk to Aria so after setting up my bed I quickly dosed off.

Aria POV

_I was being carried, somewhere. Why didn't I know what was going on? As my eyes started to flutter open I looked up at the figure carrying me. All I saw was black, a figure in a black hoodie, black ski mask and they had on black gloves I could feel against my skin. I closed my eyes hoping that if I was asleep they would leave me alone. What was I going to do? How could I escape? Would my like really end like this? I never got my happy ending. I never got my Ezra. Then as I was placed on the ground I heard footsteps walking away. I sighed with relief thinking I was safe until I heard them rummaging through a drawer. When they walked back towards me I couldn't help but keep my eyes glued onto them losing the sleeping act. It was more what they were carrying than who it was that I couldn't look away from. I spotted a large knife and my stomach turned. As they got closer and closer my heart speed up and began feeling like it was leaping out of my chest they brought the knife to my throat and I screamed._

That's when I woke up. I thought, but where was I? A dark room with no one around. "You're okay aria" I heard but the voice didn't register in my mind. What did was the hand that was placed on my shoulder. I attempted to bat it away and I was only pure luck when I came in contact with a shoulder.

"Ow!" I heard come from someone's lips and then I knew who was with me. I knew that I was safe and suddenly my whole body became more relaxed. As long as he was here no one would hurt me, he would never let them. "Ezra!" I asked as I reached out for the body. "Of course. You're okay baby, you're okay." Ezra whispered as he gathered me up in his arms and his body rocked me back and forth. I hadn't felt so at ease for months, since the last time Ezra held me.


	3. Chapter 3 run with me

Chapter 3 - Run with me

Aria POV

I snuggled in and wanted nothing more for the next few minutes than to pretend that things could be this simple between us. That we were still in love, that one I didn't have to pretend though.

I looked around the dark room as my eyes began to adjust. I saw the couch covered with blankets. Clearly Ezra had made a bed for himself. He was too much of a gentleman to just share with me without asking. He didn't even make me sleep on the couch after showing up uninvited.

As I lied there my thoughts drifted to how exactly I got here and remembered that I didn't tell my parents where I was going or even that I was going.

"Ezra! I'm never going to be able to leave my house again! My parents don't" I stared panicky until he cut me off.

"Aria don't worry I got everything worked out." He said sounding like he was completely prepared to beg me to stay.

"How?" I asked worried again.

"I talked to spencer. Interesting conversation, but we worked it all out. You're spending the night at Hannah's." Ezra told me chuckling a bit.

I wondered what about but at this point I knew what I wanted and I had to go for it before I lost my nerve. "Oh okay." I said

"Aria, why were you at my doorstep? Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining and I am certainly not asking you to leave! But I am curious" He pondered waiting expectantly for a response.

"Everything is crashing down on me Ezra. I don't have anything left to count on and I don't know! I just ended up here. When you didn't answer your door I just couldn't gather the strength to leave, so I didn't." I told him honestly and I felt my eyes welling up.

"And you were crying. Why?" he asked.

I really hated to show any weakness especially in front of him but tonight he saw a different side of me. "Well I must look like a mess. And I just don't know what to do anymore. I broke down I have so much going on and I want to leave. Rosewood isn't good for me so I'm going to go and I want you to come." I voiced hoping that he wouldn't think I was crazy.

"What?" he asked unsure of how our conversation just took such a drastic turn.

"I need to get away, for I don't know a week? A month? But I have to go Ezra. I have to! Please come with me." I pleaded.

"Aria, I can't just pick everything up and leave and neither can you. Plus your parents would never go for this; especially if they found out I was joining you." He joked trying to lighten the mood, although the words were serious.

"Well really I don't care what my parents say. Either way it's none of their concern I'm of legal age to leave so if I want to go they can't stop me." I said stubbornly, he was not going to treat me like a child. That was one thing he never did, and it might have been the combination of everything going on but it really got to me. He was my ex-boyfriend, my one and only true love, not my dad.

"Are you sure about this aria?" he asked and I could tell the double meaning in his words but I wanted him to say it out loud.

"Sure about what?" I challenged.

"All of it. Leaving or about me coming with you." He said and I knew he still wanted me which hurt me even more. I couldn't let this become more than a friendship. Even that could put him into danger but I didn't want to live without him.

"Yah, I want you to come. It doesn't mean anything though. We are just friends." The words seared my lips as I spoke them. I could see the change in his demeanour instantly. It was like I had burned him. His arms which were still wrapped around me loosened and I knew he was hurt, that and disappointed.

"Right, but are you comfortable traveling with a friend. Even if we work out that part we still have to think about how suspicious this will look if we both go missing the same week. People will talk Aria. Things aren't so simple with us." He says covering his hurt but hesitating.

"We can work it out. I'm going. Whether you come or not is up to you, but I'm telling you now I'm going." I stated trying to sound convincing but I knew I wouldn't go alone. After a few seconds of hesitation he finally spoke and I held my breath the entire time.

"Aria I am not letting you go alone. Do you even know where you're going?" He says and I feel like nothing can touch me.

"No, but that doesn't matter. Just come. Please." I beg as tears that were sitting in my eyes begin to run over. He looks into my eyes and knows how desperate I am. A single tear runs down my cheek and he wipes it away with his thumb.

"Okay" he sighs in defeat.

"Really?" I light up amazed he agreed.

"Well can't let you go alone and to be honest I'd like to catch up. It's been a while." He answered, was he still missing how things used to be? Had he really not moved on?


	4. Chapter 4 lets get the show on the road

**Authors note: Okay, well to start off I want to say im glad so many people are reading and enjoying the story! I believe the chapters are going to be getting longer (which some people have been asking about) from now on :) Lots of people still aren't reviewing so please do! I love to hear what people think, what you are hoping will happen, what you did/didn't like, All of it! so don't be shy! Lastly I hope you Enjoy :)**

**Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own pretty little liars**

**Chapter 4– Lets get the show on the road**

Ezra POV

"So, when are we leaving?" I asked.

"Well I was thinking like, now?" Aria said hoping that I would agree. At this point did it really matter? She was running away or in her words 'taking a break' and I was letting her string me along, but so long as I got to spend some time with her I wasn't about to complain.

"Sure." I say and watch the smile grow on her face.

"I'm going to need to run home and get some clothes but I promise it'll only be like five minutes." She said quickly perhaps thinking I would change my mind if she took too long. She scurried around getting ready to go.

"no problem" I called out to her as I grabbed a bag and packed more than enough for a week, but who knew how long our trip was really going to be? I looked over at the clock to see that it read 3:46 Am.

"Aria it's the middle of the night. Plus are you telling your parents?" I question not entirely sure what the plan is, or if we even have one.

"Yah, I'm telling them I'm leaving and that I will be back soon, enough" Aria tells me which makes me feel a bit better that she isn't just packing up and leaving without a word.

"Okay, ready to go?" I ask.

"Yup, let's go on a trip!" she smiles and walks out the door with her purse over her shoulder and phone in her hand. I laugh at her enthusiasm but am happy to see her so excited. We go down to the parking lot and decide what to do with the car situation. Clearly we would have to take hers and Aria made it clear it was no option to take separate cars so I climb into her passenger seat.

Aria POV

I pull up to my house and turn too Ezra "If I'm not back in twenty send in a search party" I joke and he smiles.

"Will do. Good luck" he says and I realize if I don't want to cause a massacre I'm going to need a lot of it. I walk up to my door and go inside the house. I decide to pack my bags first so I can make a quick getaway. I pack strategically to begin with but realize that is taking far too long so I got to my drawers and begin to throw things in my large coach suitcase. Then I carry it down the stairs before going to confront my parents.

I knock on their bedroom door at half past four in the morning. "What?" my dad grumbles.

"Come in" my mom says but sounds just as bothered, I don't know why I thought bothering them this early would be to my advantage. I walk in and sit on the bed.

"Aria is something wrong? I thought you were at Hannah's?" she asks concerned.

"Yah, I was" I lie "but I need to tell you something serious".

"What's going on?" my dad ask groggily.

"I don't know yet, go ahead aria." My mom says turning between the two of us.

"I'm going away. I need a break from this place. All of it. Ever since the murder trial, and being framed and the deaths, it's just too much and I need a break!" I say and tears start to fall.

My mom pulls me into a hug but it's not the pair of arms I wish were wrapped around me. Not the pair that makes me feel safe and comfortable. It's funny how things change. When I was a little girl the only thing that could end my tears was my mother scooping me up and whispering comforting words but now Ezra's arms were my only safe place to hide. His apartment was my heaven and his lips were my best medication.

"I know its hard baby girl but you'll get through it. We can go away for spring break. Alright?" she asks not seeing what I meant at all.

"No, mom I'm going away tonight. I need to go alone." I say and finally my dad's attention has been caught.

"You are not going away by yourself." He states as if to say case closed, but I wasn't losing this battle.

Even though I wouldn't be alone I had to lie. "Yes I am. I will call you every night and I swear it'll only be a week. But I am going and you can't stop me." I snap at him.

"Aria "My mom begins trying to reason between us.

"No! I am old enough to go, so I'm going to. Goodbye." I answer but I'm not sure either of them realizes I'm serious. Oh well, I guess it's better than them yelling. I turn and walk down the stairs and straight out the door with my suitcase. I throw it in the trunk of the car and then go back to the driver's seat.

"Ready?" I ask and grab one of his hands with mine.

"Ready" he repeats, and gently squeezes my hand for encouragement.

"Then let's go" I smile and hit the gas petal sending us on our journey. This wasn't just a trip across the country, but also a defining moment for our relationship. I didn't know where we were headed but I didn't care so long as my hand was in his the whole way.

Ezra POV

I held her hand in mine and was confused about what exactly we were doing. She was sending mixed signals like crazy but I didn't care. Anything is better than not seeing her and wishing the whole time that she would one day end up knocking on my door.

I see that she is exhausted and offer to drive instead. We pull over at the first gas station and she gets out stretching her legs.

"I can go get two coffees? "She asks me.

"Yah that's probably a good idea, since we have been up since like 3 AM." I laugh looking at the clock to find its seven already.

"Yah or we could just pull over at the next hotel?" Aria offers and then her cheeks redden thinking she's being to forward. "You know since we have been up for so long, and I woke you up, so I thought that that way" she rambles until I put my finger up to her lips to stop her.

"Aria calm down. I know what you mean, don't worry. Do things really need to be like this between us? We're friends it shouldn't be this awkward." I say but I know that they will be until we really talk. It's too easy to fall back into the way things were when I'm around her and when she doesn't answer I realize my fingers are still resting on lips. I quickly pull them back and she stares at me blankly. I can't tell what she's thinking, is she angry or does she still want to be with me?

"Right, um, yah, friends?" she stumbles on her words as she stares into my eyes and I can't help but chuckle. Aria was always extremely articulate and the only time she would ever trip over her own words was in between kisses or after a steamy make out. The memories made me smile.

"So we're going to the hotel now?" she asked once she had gained some clarity. I nod at her and we pull out of the gas station driveway. I pull into the first hotel we see.

"Is this okay?" I ask her.

"Yah looks good to me." She nods and after parking we walk to the lobby hauling our bags with us. I walk up to the counter and aria takes a seat looking exhausted.

"Hello, my name is Lola welcome to the holiday inn." The lady at the desk says cheerily.

"Um, hi." I say still distracted by the beautiful girl I have spent more time with in the past 24 hours than the past two months.

"Can I have one… two? Um." Crap, what should I do? I thought. I didn't ask aria about rooms. Well we weren't a couple anymore so I didn't consider sharing a bed but would two double beds be okay? No, I don't want her to be uncomfortable. To be safe I ask for two rooms and the lady working the desk works away typing. I hand her my credit card to pay then take the keys. I walk back to aria and hand her the key. We walk to the elevator and to through the halls in silence.

She gets to her door and I walk past her. "Where are you going?" she questions.

"My rooms the next one over." I answer not sure if she thought was staying with her or not.

"Oh, okay goodnight, or something like that. Come get me in a few hours." She reply's embarrassed and I think I see a blush creep up her face but it's probably just my imagination.

I think about how I wish she was sleeping next to me and mutter something before closing the door to my lifeless hotel room.


	5. Chapter 5 how did we get to this?

**Authors note: Hello everyone ! I wanted to say a huge thank you to all the people who are reading and reviewing my story, I had no idea it would be this popular but I'm glad you like it as much as I do! Lots more coming and I think you'll like where the story line is going…**

**As always please review ! And happy PLL day :) !**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PLL or Ezria…. But can you imagine how amazing that would be? **

* * *

**Chapter 5 – How did we get to this?**

Aria POV

"Sleep well" he says as he goes to close the door of his hotel room.

"Not half as well as if I was in your arms" I mutter under my breath. Did he not even want to share a hotel room with me? It's not like I was saying we had to sleep together. Or even share a bed, but apparently this he how he felt comfortable.

Maybe this was the smarter thing to do, but I didn't want to be smart. I wanted to feel safe, and relaxed, and happy, and loved again. I sigh as I open my suitcase and throw on a tee-shirt and some shorts and crawl into bed.

I wake up and look over to my phone that reads three PM. Apparently I had been sleeping a long time. Then there a knock at the door probably what woke me in the first place. I hop over to the door to see his gorgeous face.

"Hi, just wondering if you wanted to go out and grab something to eat or head on the road?" he says.

"Sure. How about we get something to eat and then figure out what exactly were doing? Or where we are going?" I ask hoping we might get a chance to talk about more than the road trip.

"Yah, sounds good. I will let you get ready." He says turning to go.

"You could just wait in here? Keep me company? You know I didn't ask you to come so I could spend the trip alone." I joke and I get a perfect smile from him.

"Sure" he nods and walks into the room. I walk back to my suitcase and before picking an outfit I look to see what Ezra is wearing. I hadn't even noticed until then because I was so busy looking at his amazing smile and mesmerizing eyes. He had on a form-fitting white dress shirt that clung to his body showing off his toned arms and chest along with black slacks. He looked way to dressy for fast food.

"Are we going somewhere nice?" I ask as he notices me looking him over.

"Oh, well I made reservations in town, just somewhere the woman at the front desk recommended." He says shrugging it off like it's no big deal but I knew he did it because we never had a chance to go out somewhere nice (or anywhere at all for that matter) in rosewood.

"Thanks" I say with hope filling me up that perhaps he would forgive me for how cruel I had been. I knew I was trying to protect him, but he didn't and really I couldn't tell him. That would only put him in danger and I wouldn't allow that but I couldn't force myself to stay away from him anymore. It was far too painful and perhaps even impossible since we seemed to attract each other like magnets. Even when the world tried to separate up and pull us apart we still found a way back to each other.

I picked up my makeup bag and headed to the bathroom to get ready. I ran the water for the shower and as I took off my clothes I threw them into the hamper across the hall from the bathroom. Hopping into the shower my memories take me back to that day when I broke my own heart.

_I knew Jackie meant what she had said. She would tell if I stayed with him and that I just couldn't allow. I couldn't let her destroy everything he worked for and everything he wanted in his future. If she told my dad I couldn't be sure of what his future would hold. Certainly not me, but I don't think I had any hopes of that either way anymore. _

_What would my father do? Would Ezra get sent to jail? Was that even possible anymore? Then there was the school board. He would definitely be fired if my dad could help it and a student teacher affair would cost him his teaching licence too. I knew that teaching was his passion I couldn't let him loose it because of me. Also where would he go? Could he stay here? No, not without a job. He would have to move back to New York with his parents until he could figure something out. _

_Or I could make this all so much easier. I could breakup with him, I could let Jackie win. Then there wouldn't be any complications. As much as I hated the thought of backing down to Jackie I had to think what was best for him. I couldn't be selfish and keep him even though he was the most important thing in my life. That was exactly why I decided to do what I did. _

_He would move on, sure he loves me now but if I left him, if I really made him think I didn't want to be with him, he would get over me. He would find someone else, someone he could go out on a date with. Someone he could kiss in the middle of the sidewalk. Someone who he could marry and start a family with. Every essence of my being wished that could be me, but I knew it never would be. It crushed me to think of him with another woman but I would keep him safe, I would give him what he deserved. _

_As I drove up to his apartment I parked and sat in the car trying to make myself go in. I couldn't stop myself from thinking but I knew I was trying to stall. So I made myself open the car door and walk up to his building. My legs felt like lead as I walked up each of his stairs I knew it must have taken me almost half an hour when really I could make it up there in about 2 minutes when I was hungry to feel his lips on my mouth. I made it to the door of 3B and stared at the door for a long time, I turned around once or twice knowing that I would be broken if I went through with the plan, knowing that he would be hurt by my cruel words that I would have to say. _

_As I stood there the moment came where I finally found myself bring my hand to the door and knock twice, then the tears came to my eyes. I knew that it was over at that second I knew he would never love me again. He opened the door and smiled at me clearly I was a pleasant surprise. _

"_Aria. What are you doing here? Come in!" he said as I made no move to enter. I took a few stiff steps into his house and stood there._

"_What's wrong honey?" he said and he came over to wrap me in his arms. I had to step back before he could, I needed to stay strong._

_He looked at me confused, I never rejected him like that and I felt a pang of guilt come over me. If something that small hurt me I knew by the time I left here I would be dead on the inside. _

"_Ezra" I said and took a deep breath, I had to get through this! "The thing is I can't do this anymore" I told him and I could feel my legs shaking beneath me. I only hoped I could keep myself up._

"_What? What are you talking about aria?" he asked suddenly full of concern. _

"_I can't do this. Any of it. The sneaking around, the lying, never really being able to even go on a date! I hate it, I can't do it." I said and as the words came out it took everything in me not to breakdown. Not to throw myself in his arms and tell him the truth. That none of this was real, that I hadn't meant a single word of it. _

_His eyes filled with hurt and I could tell that I broke his heart more and more with every word I spoke. "Aria? Are you serious right now?" he asked me desperate for me to say something." I love you, so much. I thought you felt the same way?" _

_My breathing caught. I loved him so much and now I have to tell him I had changed my mind. I had planned to tell him that it had only been a student teacher fling and that I was over it now, but I couldn't bring myself to say those words, it was just too awful so I improvised._

"_I mean it Ezra. I need to find someone else. Someone who I can go out with, and have fun with. Someone who can take me to the school dance and I can have lunch with. Because at the end to the day I'm 16, and in high school and your 24 and a teacher. So that's what we need to be." I said and the tears threatened to pour out of my eyes but I kept them back. I needed this to be my most convincing lie ever and luckily I had lots of practice._

_I saw how hurt he looked. He looked broken, but not anywhere near like I felt. I could tell that he wanted to fight for me, but he wouldn't. He had always said that if I ever wanted something else then he would let me go because I deserved to be happy, and safe, and not risking anything to be in love. The truth was I was willing to risk everything for him, and here I was doing just that. I was sending away the one person who made me happy, the only person I could always count on to hold we while I cried. _

"_Okay Aria. If that's what you want then fine. Leave, just go." He said as his hurt turned into anger and frustration. I could tell he felt betrayed the person who he loved changed her mind in an instant and now he was left to catch up on whatever just happened._

_I cringed at his words. Even though I had been breaking his heart the entire time those few words he said cut me like a knife. I nodded and walked out the door slamming it behind me. Mission accomplished right? I had never felt so awful from achieving exactly what I set out to do. No, it was more than that. I had never felt this awful ever before._

I shook the thoughts from my head as I felt tears running down my face. As I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my towel around me I started looking around for my dress. Crap.


	6. Chapter 6 just a towel

**Hi my fantastic readers! As always i just want to say thank you so much! This is definitely one of my longest chapters here and it's going to get juicy soon (i promise)! This is kind of just a funny chapter with some flashback to show you how they have gotten to where they are (been doing a lot of those lately) but i hope that it fills in a lot of the blanks that have been left to help develop the story. Hope you enjoy and please review :) Thanks!**

**Chapter 6- Just a towel**

Ezra POV

I sat in the hotel room waiting for Aria to get ready. The reservations weren't until five so we had hours to kill. I figured I had better watch a movie to keep myself occupied, it wasn't the first time I waited for aria to get ready. I knew she liked to look perfect and 'perfection takes time' as aria told me.

While I was losing myself in a movie I suddenly hear the door creak. As I look over at the clock I notice it's only been a half hour. She couldn't possibly be ready?

"Aria?" I call out.

"Mhmm" she answers as she steps around the corner and my jaw drops. There stands the girl I want more than anything else in what I imagine to be nothing more than a towel, not to mention the fact that she's dripping wet.

"Y…you..ou…" I stutter out feeling like an idiot.

"I forgot my clothes I'll only be a minute." She chuckles perhaps at my words or lack thereof, or perhaps from the way I know my eyes must be popping out of my head. She tucks her towel in to free up her hands and starts to search through her suitcase. Slowly her towel begins to slip down her chest further and further until I know I have to tell her.

"Aria, your towel…." I mutter.

"Oh oops" she says a bit embarrassed but I don't know what of, she has an amazing body. As I think that I realize that very well may be why she's embarrassed, her ex-boyfriend/ former teacher/ friend just had to tell her to pull up her towel.

"I mean I wasn't looking or anything." I add quickly. She giggles and I look at her confused.

"It's not a big deal Ezra" she says still smiling at me.

"It's more than I saw when we were together." Slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it and I feared for what her reaction was going to be. She looked at me for a second and then burst out into laughter.

"That's your own fault!" she said in her giggle fit. Then she grabbed her clothes and walked back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. Forty five minutes later aria walked out of the bathroom, fully clothed this time. In fact not only was she dressed but she also had her hair and makeup done perfectly, she looked gorgeous, not that she wasn't always beautiful.

"Wow, you look fantastic aria!" I complimented her as I looked her over. She was wearing a little black dress that was halter style and quite low cut and also only went down to about her mid-thigh. Her hair was down in the usual curls that I loved and her eyes drew me in.

"Thanks" she smiled and grabbed my hand, "let's go" she said as she began pulling me to the door.

Aria POV

As we walk out of the hotel I feel like we are a couple again, we are holding hands and laughing about some insignificant detail. I start to walk to the car and he pulls me back wrapping his arms around my waist. I inhale sharply desperate to stay pressed up against but knowing that I'm leading him on, again. Every time I get his hopes up I have to break him back down and the look on his face make me feel like I'm killing a puppy. I back up and I see in his eyes he's worried what I'm going to say.

"Um where are we going?" I asked changing the subject trying to get rid of the awkwardness.

"We're walking there." He said trying to keep the smile on his face but I could tell the difference between him faking a smile and that perfect boyish grin from a mile away.

"Okay, let's go!" I try to seem joyful and playful still but I know I killed our mood entirely. I miss when our moods were free to be vibrant and passionate. We had always had plenty of passion. Passion that turned into kissing, and racing hearts, and being entirely out of breath but we never let ourselves go any further. Well, he never let us.

_I remembered the day that I had gone to his apartment with a mission, to finally go all the way with Ezra. I was waiting with dinner on the table when he got home from work. He had his teacher look going for him, and as wrong as it may be to think, he looked crazy good. We quickly found ourselves getting carried away in a make out session which was quite regular, when I decided to step it up. We were on the couch and I was lying on top of him while his hands were wrapped around my waist. I took my hand out of his hair and after running them down his neck found his tie and started to undo it. At first he didn't care in fact I think that his hormones were running so wild that he wasn't even thinking straight. But as I started at the buttons of his shirt he snapped out of his trance and sat up._

"_Aria." He said flatly and started doing up the buttons on his shirt. I grabbed his hand to stop him and held on to them. _

"_Why, Ezra? Why don't you want me? Do you not find me attractive?" I sniffled as I began to cry even though I so desperately attempting not to. I didn't want him trying to make me feel better, I wanted a straight out answer so when he tried to pull me into his chest to comfort me like he always did I moved so that I was facing him straight on but kept his hands in mine. _

"_Honey, Aria. Of course I do! You know that's crazy!" he said as his gazed deeply into my eyes trying to convey how he felt. I knew he loved me but I didn't understand why he didn't want to sleep with me. _

"_Do I? How would I possibly get that from how you act?" I say my voice filled with emotion of frustration and hurt. _

"_Aria. I love you. You know that don't you? You know that you are the most important person in my world, right?" He said still looking at me and I finally gave in and snuggled into his chest. I looked up into his eyes from my new position and kissed him lightly. _

"_I know you love me and you know I love you, so much. But that's where I get lost. Why don't you want to sleep with me?" I asked directly but not in the angry tone I was using before. Now it was simply a question and I was desperate to know the answer. _

"_That's not it at all. You've got your story very confused, but I suppose that's because I never told you. I hoped you would just give up but I know you better than to believe that." He chuckled a little and I smiled up at him. "Aria, we just can't. You know that people are going to think our relationship is wrong no matter what but do you want people to be able to say that I was just using you for sex? Or call you a slut because you were sleeping around with a teacher? This way they don't have any argument at all." He said struggling with how to explain his reasoning. _

"_But Ezra I don't care what they think! If people want to call me a slut let them! And I know you would never use me! Although if I hear people say thing like that about you they will certainly get an earful from me. But the point is if people want to start rumours they are going to, whether we had sex or not!" I reply a bit worked up but relieved that he wants me. _

"_I don't want them saying things that will hurt you aria. And don't go getting in a fight trying to stick up for me; I can take whatever they want to say." He told me knowing that I would still do what I wanted. I wouldn't let rumours fly about him. He would end up getting way more hurt than me. And that's when it hit me; this is going to ruin his reputation, everything he has ever worked for, everything he's wanted. Even if he thinks this is protecting me I have to drop it so that I can keep him safe. _

"_Okay." I said and he looked at me like I had three heads. _

"_What did you say?" he asked. _

"_I said okay." I repeated and giggled at his expression. _

"_Why?" he asked looking at me for anything that might give away the answer. He knew I was terribly stubborn, I didn't ever just give in that easily. _

"_It doesn't matter why." I told him turning my face away and bringing his arms to wrap around my waist as I snuggled back into him while laying on the couch. _

That was back when he was my teacher though. After he got the job at Hollis things went downhill for us. Now I didn't care about those rumours, I didn't care what people thought. He couldn't get in trouble for being with me, he couldn't get fired, and he couldn't go to jail. Now I wanted him, every part of him, but could I risk him being in danger. I didn't want to put him in the way of A. A didn't mess around and if she wanted him gone, he would be. Also we had to deal with my parents and what would they do? But every second I spent with him it reminded me more and more of why I fell in love with him in the first place and I was having a very hard time trying to let that go.


	7. Chapter 7 green eyed monster

**Hi everyone ! Sorry it's been a few days but i hope you still keep reading, i promise to keep adding on to the story as long as people are reading and enjoying :) please read and review!**

chapter 7- green eyed monster

Ezra POV

As we walked I noticed aria was blankly staring off somewhere down the street. She did that a lot, get lost in her own thoughts but I rarely interrupted. She seemed so involved I would hate to disturb her. We walk for about ten minutes in silence and it leaves me to think about Aria. For example what was she really doing? Why had she asked me to come along? I knew she said we were just friends but back in the apartment when I found her she seemed so desperate to be in my arms, she had snuggled herself in and refused to let go. But perhaps she had just been feeling insecure. She needed someone to turn to so she came to me? Well she knew I wasn't going to turn her down.

I knew she had been sending mixed signals and when she gave me an opportunity to hold her hand I took it, but when I tried to make any move she rejected me completely. Maybe she didn't feel comfortable with me anymore? Maybe ever since that day when she told me that she was over me aria had started seeing me as just a 24 year old teacher? Could she ever see me like that when she knew how I felt about her? I knew I would never see her as just a sixteen year old high school student. We had to talk about it. I knew we did to move past this awkward stage, but if she said that I was nothing more to her would the trip come to an end? Or would it just be a private field trip in her mind?

I wanted nothing more than for her to say that she still had feelings for me but after the way she spoke to me that day I can't imagine she could ever love me again? I mean had she ever loved me in the first place? Yes, I had to tell myself she had or I would have none of those memories to hang on to. I couldn't let myself believe that it had all been a lie, that it had all been a game to her. No aria wasn't like that. She was pure, and kind, and caring, and loving.

Then I was snapped out of my thoughts by Aria's small hand intertwining her fingers with mine. I knew that there was something there. She would slip up every once and a while and then try to correct herself, but it was too late. It gave me hope. But the real question was why was she trying to stop herself? Was it because she didn't want to be in love with a man seven years older than her or because she was afraid of what people would say about her? Neither of those sounded like aria to me. I knew she didn't care what other people thought and age had never been an issue with the two of us. It had to be something though, and I would figure it out. Piece by piece I would put it together until I had the entire picture.

She brought our intertwined hands up to her face and rubbed the back of my hand against her cheek. She took in a deep breath and seemed to be enjoying my touch to her skin. Then suddenly she dropped my hand but I didn't move it. I kept it to her face and then took a step so that I was facing her front on.

"Aria, we need to talk" I said as I cupped the side of her face in my hand. I tried to catch her in something she had instigated so she couldn't deny that something was going on and fortunately it worked.

"Yah, over dinner. Okay?" she said and then looked down not looking directly at me once.

"Okay" I repeated. I wished she would just come out and say it but I doubted she would. She was probably using this time to come up with an excuse, some story that I would most likely believe because I couldn't convince myself that she loved me anymore.

I saw the name of the restaurant we were looking for and turned to the door grabbing her hand and leading her in.

"Hello do you have a reservation?" the woman at the desk asked in a flirty voice and looked me over. I quickly stole a glance at aria and saw she was not impressed by the blonde waitress. I had to hold back a chuckle.

I looked at the woman. She had blonde hair and green eyes. I suppose she was pretty but she didn't catch my interest. The only woman I wanted was aria but I suppose she took my looking at the girl in entirely the wrong way. Instantly she became defensive and pulls me closer to her.

"Yes, for Fitz please" she says in her sweetest voice and runs her hand along my shoulder as we stand there trying to make a statement to the overly friendly girl.

"Of course, right this way." The waitress replies in a less friendly tone. As we are seated aria smiles knowing that she has won. We both order drinks and the overcome girl walks away.

"Aria, we need to talk. What is this?" I said anxiously knowing that this would basically be the defining moment of our trip, if not our lives as well.

Aria POV

"Aria we need to talk. What is this?" he said the tone of his voice a bit off but I couldn't tell what from. I took a deep breath before answering

"I don't know Ezra, I really don't anymore." I say and know this is going to bring up so much more. I know he is going to ask about why we broke up in the first place and if I still loved him and so many other things I didn't want to get into even though all the answers were simple.

The truth was simple but I had told so many lies, done so many things with a hidden agenda that I wasn't sure the truth could come out anymore.

"Well, let's start at the beginning. Why did you really ask me to come with you?" he says looking into my eyes.

"I already told you this one. I didn't want to come alone and I knew I could count on you." I say getting off to a good start at least, nothing too touchy there.

"Okay, well then let's get right into this shall we? Why do you keep sending mixed signals?" he asks and I bit my lip nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" I state but know he won't buy it.

"Aria" is all he says back to me and I decide to continue although I have no idea what to say.

"Okay, well it's just that it seems sometimes like nothing has changed you know? I find myself reaching for your hand or acting like we are still together when I know we're not. I forget sometimes." I say telling the entire truth. I wasn't making these slip ups on purpose; they were honest accidents where my brain and my heart tended not to agree.

"Why though Aria? Do you still have feelings for me?" he asks and then I know things are getting serious I am either going to have to spill everything or lie and I wasn't ready for the truth tonight. It would undoubtedly involve a lot of tears and I didn't want to make a scene in the middle of a classy restaurant.

"Ezra there I so much you don't know, about what happened, about everything and I just can't do this right now" I reply shaking my head knowing tears were welling up in my eyes. He looks at me and I feel like he can read me like a book, I'm so venerable yet with him I know I'm still safe.

He reaches across the table and wipes the tears falling down my face aside with his thumb. I must have given him some kind of hope because it was the first time he had made any sort of move to touch me or comfort me at all since we have been on this trip.

Maybe though this was just him being the kind person he was, maybe him not making any move was because he had moved on like I had thought he would and didn't want some high school girl anymore.

"Ezra, have you moved on? Are you seeing someone?" I ask without thinking about it, the words had already come out my mouth. He looked a bit surprised by my forwardness but if he was asking questions tonight wasn't I entitled to some answers as well.

"No I'm not seeing anyone. I haven't wanted to be with anyone since you aria." He said and I realized how much I had hurt him. Maybe I left him as shattered as I had left myself but I had known the reasons, he only had lies, cruel lies that would have destroyed me if the situation was reversed.

"But don't worry I know you had a new boyfriend. So I was wondering why you didn't invite him on this little trip." He continued after I had been quiet for some time.

"No, I mean yes I had a boyfriend, but it meant nothing. It was just me trying to move on. It's completely over though, if you could even say there was ever anything going on? There is no one who I would ask to run away with me other than you." I say knowing he will probably leave more confused than he came.

"Aria, I understand you said there are things I don't know but I don't understand why after the things you said you would still want to have anything to do with me?" he asked while me eyes filled with tears. He missed me, he wanted me, but worse of all he thought that I didn't want to have anything to do with him. I stood up and ran out of the restaurant.


	8. Chapter 8 a moment of truth

**Authors note: Hi! Sorry it's been a little while longer than normal between updates, I was on vacation but now I will be working away on my stories again! I think this is the moment some of you have been waiting for in this story, but of course there has to be some drama! Hope you enjoy, review and let me know what you think! Thanks :)**

* * *

**Chapter 8 – A moment of truth**

Ezra POV

Aria suddenly picked up her purse and bolted from the restaurant. I sat there for a moment lost with what just happened but then I got up and ran out following her. I hadn't asked anything that would upset her, or so I thought.

"Aria, I understand you said there are things I don't know but I don't understand why after the things you said you would still want to have anything to do with me?" I replayed in my head. As I got out the door I looked around trying to find her and spotted her sitting on the bench across the street.

"Aria" I called out to her and when by reflex she lifted her head I saw the tears falling from her face. I walked over and for the first time in months didn't hesitate to pull her into my arms. Instead of backing up she leaned into me and looked up into my eyes like she had so many times before.

"Aria what's wrong?" I whispered into her ears and saw Goosebumps form on her neck.

"Everything. Don't you see that?" she answered faintly and more tears rolled down her face. I brought my hand to wipe them off of her check and once again she didn't shy away. In fact she leaned into my touch and snuggled her face into my chest.

"What are you talking about Aria?" I asked in wonder, I was very confused by the sudden mood swing.

"I love you Ezra. I love you so much and I don't want to be apart anymore but we have to be. I'm sick of hurting you and I'm so tired of feeling broken, but I'm doing it for you. I'm keeping you safe because I need to. What would I do if I got you lost your job and had to move away? I could never live with myself. I need you to be okay and if the only way you can live a normal life is to be with someone else then I'm going to stay away from you because I've messed up your life enough already." She started to yell full of emotion and on the verge of a breakdown.

Aria stands up ready to storm away again but as she turns to step away from the bench I catch her arm and spin her back to me. Then before I know it her lips are on mine and I feel completely alive again. At first she is timid to let her guard down but soon our lips move in perfect synchronization. I run my tongue along her lips and hungrily she lets it enter her mouth. As soon as our tongues touch she lets out a soft moan. Her fingers knot into my hair as she pulls me closer into her body. The kiss quickly becomes passionate and she puts every ounce of emotion in her body into it. I never want to let go of her again but as she leans back I feel my heart sink. Before she can tell me what a mistake it was I need her to know how I feel so I cut in quickly.

"Aria I love you and I don't want you to stay away from me anymore, ever again. You haven't ruined anything in my life aria, you made everything so much better and who says life has to be normal. I don't want a normal life I want you. I would risk everything for you aria because I can live without a lot of things but this, this I can't stand to go without." I tell her hoping she won't shut me out again knowing I pushed things over the thin line we were walking on.

"I love you" she grabs my hand and whispers in my ear "but that won't change anything Ezra" she continues solemnly then turns around walking the opposite direction from the hotel.

"Where are you going?" I call after her.

"For a walk" she says just loud enough for me to hear.

"But Aria" I try to bring her back but she snaps at me

"Just let me go". I stand there and watch her walk further and further down the road until she fades into the crowd.

Aria POV

"Just let me go" I shout back at him and continue to stomp up the street into the crowds of people. I could have just ended the fight there, I could have made up with him and being so willing to forget he would have forgiven me. He would have pretended nothing had ever happened and that there was no danger in this for him. He would have pretended that his job, his future, his whole life weren't being risked just to be with me and as much as I would have loved to pretend that I couldn't let him be so ignorant.

I wished I could stay with him and have his lips on mine. That was my weakness. Once his lips hit mine I was cautious since I knew I lacked self-control when it came to him, but still I got lost so easily. When his tongue went to my lip I knew it was a lost cause. I just got lost deeper and deeper into him, into my dreams for the future all of which he stared in. I brought my hand up to my lips remembering the feeling. Just like I could remember the feeling of his hands running through my hair, down my back, or along my waist.

Then I spotted a couple ahead. The girl couldn't be much older than me but the man looked at least twenty something, maybe Ezra's age. She was a pretty girl and he was a fairly good-looking guy but he had nothing on Ezra. His eyes didn't sparkle, his face wasn't perfectly sculpted. And his body neither invited me in nor made me want to take all his clothes off like Ezra's did. I wondered what their story was; would it have a happy ending? As she leaned in to kiss him I narrowed my eyes annoyed at how I had ruined everything. As they continued down the road hand in hand I stormed right between them breaking their hands apart and causing them to give me dirty looks. I continued down a road until I came to a bench sat down and pulled out my phone.

"Hello" they answered on the other end after two rings.

"Spencer? I need your help." I sniffled into the phone.

"Aria! Where the hell are you?" she practically yelled back into my ear.

"Okay now I'm depressed and deaf, thanks Spence!" I responded sarcastically.

"Really aria! Your mom called me saying you came home at like four in the morning and that you said you were leaving? She wanted to know if any of us were with you, which we are not! So I want to know what happened! How wrong could things have gone between midnight and two am? Where are you? Are you alone?" she said quickly but distinctly enough to understand

"Whoa, okay one thing at a time. Even though I don't want to talk about it I guess I will have to explain it all." I grumbled.

"Okay go!" she huffed from the other end.

"Alright well I went to Ezra's" I started sort of embarrassed to admit I went to him and that I broke down so I skipped it hoping she wouldn't ask anymore.

"Yah I know, keep going and get to something good!" she said nonchalantly. "I want to know how you ended up packing your bags and leaving! Did you have a fight with him? He sounded so happy you were there, Confused but still happy!" she informed me and I knew I would have to find out what exactly they had said.

"No it's not like that at all! Well it sort of is. I will just go from the start. Okay, well I was very upset and I went to him. I told him I didn't want to stay in rosewood I told him I needed to get out of there leave and just run away. Then I asked him to come with me. I told him I was going either way but I really just wanted him to come. I was desperate to see him, spend time with him, talk to him." I said going off into my own world only to be rudely interrupted by a mocking spencer. "Make out with him, have his tongue down your throat"

"Hey! Stop, I'm the one telling the story!" I said joking but slightly annoyed.

"Fine continue" she said.

"So he said yes. I went home told my parents I needed to leave and then me and Ezra left. We are about three hours away from rosewood now. We went to a hotel, but he wouldn't even share a room with me. Then some other stuff happened. I kept slipping up. I would grab his hand or stand too close or, I don't know lots of stupid things! Anyway it's obvious we were both having some feelings for each other. Then we went to dinner and we had to talk about it. He thinks I hate him spencer! He really does! I mean you know I broke up with him so that Jackie wouldn't ruin his life but he doesn't and he believed all my lies. That's what hurt the worst, knowing that he took every one of those terrible words I had said to heart." I ranted now with tears rolling down my face.

"So I ran out of the restaurant. He caught up with me and then I, I told him..." I couldn't spit out the words.

"Aria! What did you say?" she asked knowing I was just getting to the good part.

"I told him I'm in love with him! I said I was trying to keep him safe and how I was dying every day I couldn't have him with me. But I told him we couldn't be together and that I would stay away from him." I said after taking a deep breath

"Then what! Don't tell me that's it aria!" Spencer shouted anxious to hear the rest.

"Well then I went to run away but he caught my arm. He pulled me in and we kissed and I couldn't stop it! I just couldn't, I couldn't help myself. His tongue was in my mouth and after that I didn't even try I just pulled him closer and let his hands roam my body." I told her wishing I could be reliving it.

"Okay, a little too much info aria but that great isn't it? You love him!" she said.

"No because then he told me how in love with me he is and that he doesn't want me to stay away from him anymore." I said frustrated.

"Oh what a shame you have a fantastic man madly in love with you! Poor aria!" spencer cried dramatically and very sarcastically.

"No because then I had to tell him we couldn't and I had to walk away from him. Now I'm sitting out here on a bench on Front Street wherever that is! In the middle of a city I don't know, alone, talking to you." I grumble back still wishing I could just be in his arms.

"You do this to yourself aria! You can't have it both ways! You either stay away from him or you be with him. And since you invited him away with you I'm really doubting your ability to do the first one. So just be with him aria! He loves you and you love him, he misses you and you miss him, and you both want each other, I could tell from the minute conversation I had with him how badly he needs you. He's as bad as you aria so just stop this act and tell him the truth!" she said getting frustrated with me but in a way she was right.

"I wish it could be that simple spencer, but you know that A will go after him and Jackie will tell my dad and then he won't have a job and he will leave me and hate me for ruining everything." I told her what had been running through my mind since I showed up at his doorstep.

"Aria he loves you. And you love him, so do what you need to." She said knowing the feeling of A getting in the way.

"Thanks Spence I needed to talk." I said ready to hang up the phone in my glum mood but then she said something that made me smile.

"Anytime! And you tell me when the next steamy make out is!" she called out.

"If there is one I promise" I laughed, "Bye Spence" I said and pressed the end call button on my phone.


	9. Chapter 9 a sitting duck?

**Authors note: Hi everyone! Thank you for the reviews as always. I'm starting a few little stories on the side (don't worry this one will definitely be finished!) so look out for those! Hope you enjoy the chapter and please, please, please write a review! They make me very happy :P **

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**Chapter 9 – a sitting duck?**

Ezra POV

I noticed that Aria had left her purse on the bench so I picked it up and walked back to the hotel. I went to my room and collapsed on my bed frustrated with how the day had turned out. Things had been going so well and then when the truth started coming out she ran.

Ring ring ring. My phone went off and I ran over to get it expecting it to be Aria. I was in such a rush I didn't even look at the caller ID.

"Aria honey I'm sorry. Just let me come pick you up! I can drive you home if you want. Or we can go on your trip or anything!" I said all in one breath.

"Um this is Spencer" she replied awkwardly, well our phone conversations continued to have terrible timing.

"Oh, sorry it's just we had a fight and, well you didn't even know we were away did you?" I asked so much had happened in the last twenty-four hours I was lost.

"Actually I just talked to Aria and she told me everything." Spencer said and I was contemplating if it was childish to ask her friend why she was acting like this but decided it really didn't matter at this point.

"How mad is she? Is it because I kissed her, because she told me she was still in love with me." I asked worried but tried not to sound as upset as I really was.

"She not mad at you Ezra. She's just confused, there's a lot you don't know and she doesn't want to put you in danger. I mean everyone knows this is way more dangerous for you than it is for her. She just doesn't want to hurt you but she's killing both of you in the meantime." She chuckled humourlessly. "But I can tell you where she is. She said she's on a bench on front street, wherever that is?"

"Thank you spencer" I said with a new plan in mind.

"Take care of her okay? She loves you so much she's just lost, I know you love her. I know you're what's best for her." She added seriously just as I was about to hang up.

"I will spencer. And I do love her more than you know. Whether we end up together or not I swear I will make sure she is okay. I just want her to be happy." I told her.

"Go get her Ezra! And don't be afraid to kiss her, she melts every time." She said and giggled a bit.

"You girls talk so much; I really don't even want to know what she tells you." I said laughing a bit glad to have some of the tension broken.

"You're just lucky I'm not Hannah" she said laughing "now go!" and with that she hung up on her end.

I got my bag and put it into the hallway then opened Aria's purse and grabbed her room key. I walked in and threw the few things around the room into her suit case and zipped it up. I wheeled it out to the hall and got mine in my other hand and headed down to the car. I quickly stopped at the front desk to check out then continued.

Luckily she had left her purse or I would have been stuck, a sitting duck. I went to the parking garage and loaded the suitcases then started my journey searching for Front Street. I drove up and down streets for about an hour until I finally saw the sign I had been praying to see. Then I spotted a girl sitting alone on a bench staring out into nowhere.

Even from a distance there was no doubt in my mind it was Aria. I pulled up to the bench and I saw I caught her attention. I reached over and threw open the passenger door.

"Aria get in" I called and reluctantly she picked herself up from the seat and got into the car.

"Where are we going?" she asked looking into my eyes for some kind of clues to what was going on, and it had nothing to do with our location. I decided to answer both,

"Where do you want to go? Whatever you want, if you want to go home I will take you now." I tell her but from the look on her face that isn't what she wants.

"Do you want to go home? Are you done with me? You must think I'm some stupid childish girl." She said with tears in her eyes. I knew she must have spent a long time thinking about us but I still felt like we were going in circles.

"No I'm not done with you Aria. I love you, I told you that and I could never think of you as a child. But you need to start telling me what happened. Why are you so upset? Why can't we just be together?" I ask tired of her avoiding whatever it was.

"I don't want you to get in trouble Ezra." She whispered trying to keep tears from falling.

"Just tell me aria! I'm a big boy I can handle it!" I snap and feel terrible when I see the tears beginning to pour down. I pull the car over and turn to her but she turns to face the window still crying.

"Aria I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap I'm just confused and frustrated. Please look at me" I beg. She slowly turns her head and I see the sadness in her eyes. I know she turns to me for comfort and I'm ruining it for her. I want her to know that I will always be here to hold her, not to make her cry.

I open my arms and she shakes her head at me. I lean my head against the window knowing things are getting worse between us. At this rate by the end of the trip she won't even want to talk to me, I will have pushed her away. Then aria undoes her seatbelt and crawls over to my side she sits herself down on my lap. She leans her head into my chest and I wrap my arms around her. We both just needed some comfort right now. She needed me to hold her and needed to have her in my arms.

Aria POV

I stayed in his arms for a long time. I knew that I had just been being stubborn not to accept his apology and I felt bad for hurting him. I wouldn't let myself do anything to upset him if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I had hurt us both enough for a lifetime. I went to move assuming that we should get on the road so he wouldn't have to drive the whole way (wherever that was) in the dark but he pulled me tighter to his body when I moved.

"Just stay" he said barely loud enough for me to hear.

"We should go, I mean we can't stay here forever" I said but made no attempt to move away from him this time. Honestly I didn't want to.

"We could if we wanted to" he whispered into my ear. It wasn't fair how he did that to me. He made me want him so badly. I knew there were Goosebumps all down my neck and I hoped he didn't notice. He slowly let go of his grip on me but instead of going back to my seat like he had expected me to do I turned around on his lap so that I was facing him.

His eyes were so honest I couldn't stop myself. I brought my lips to his and started to kiss him but he didn't kiss me back. I leaned away and furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at him.

"Aria do you really want me to kiss you? It's not just a slip up because I don't want you to regret anything when it comes to me, to us." He said and I knew that I didn't want to stay away.

"No regrets, just kiss me" I said and then his lips met mine but not as softly as normally. He was just as desperate to kiss me as I was to kiss him. My fingers knotted in his hair and he ran his tongue along my lip for the second time today. Soon our tongues were battling for dominance and I couldn't have been happier.

After months of not having him around, now having him so close made me want more. I went to start unbuttoning his shirt but decided not to push things. Why would I ruin this perfect moment. I pulled back and saw him smiling his perfect boyish grin which made a huge smile grow on my face.

"I love you" he said and I gave him a light chaste kiss on the lips. "I love you too" I said still grinning from ear to ear.


	10. Chapter 10 roll over, roll over

**Authors note: Hi! Thank you as always to all the people who are reviewing, but I did want to say that I haven't had any guest reviews lately and I am really missing you guys! Please enjoy and review! :) **

**and as you all know sadly I don't own pretty little liars**

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**Chapter 10 – roll over, roll over**

Aria POV

I looked down at the clock as we continued our drive. It was eleven and we were getting ready to pull into another hotel for the night. We hadn't gotten very far on our trip so far we were only about five hours from rosewood but it wasn't where we were that mattered it was just the fact that me and Ezra were away and could spend time together without any judgement.

"Here?" he asked as he pulled into the Hilton hotel driveway.

"Sure" I answered, I loved that he wanted to take me somewhere nice rather than just stopping at one of the many dumpy motels on the side of the road.

We got out of the car and unloaded our bags and walked to the reception desk. After waiting a few minutes a pretty woman came up to the counter which frustrated me. Not that I thought I was ugly but I had just spent a long day outside and then in the car while she looked like she stepped out of the pages of a magazine.

"Hello" she smiled brightly at Ezra and never turns in my direction once.

"Hi, can we please have" Ezra started but I had to make sure she knew he was not available so I interrupted. "A room" I finish faking a smiling at her.

"We only have a queen bed available is that alright?" she said still looking at Ezra probably hoping he would say something along the lines of 'I don't want to sleep in a bed with my little sister' but instead of answering her he turned to me.

"We can go somewhere else" he said quietly knowing the lady at the desk was still listening.

"No that's fine. It's really not a big deal. I mean it's not like we have never shared a bed before" I say the last part a little louder and am glad to see that I've thrown the girl off a bit when I turn back around.

"That's great thank you." I tell her and can't help but think I noticed her glare at me. I grab my purse and pull out a credit card as she types away on some buttons.

"Aria, I'm paying" Ezra says as he notices the card in my hand.

"No you paid last night." I say then lean in and whisper to him "Anyway what will my parents think if they don't see any hotel charges?"

"Okay, but I will pay you back" he says to me stubbornly.

"No Ezra, it's not a big deal. I have money you don't always have to pay for me." I reply not wanting him to think I can't take care of myself.

"It's your parent's money aria" he reply's sceptically

"Well sorry not all of us are English professors" I shoot back sarcastically. "We can talk about this later" I say as I hand the woman my credit card.

I get the room keys and then we start to walk to the elevator. "I don't think your parents would be too thrilled about who your rooming with." He says dryly.

"Well that's my business not theirs." I say annoyed that he's ruining our good mood. As I get to the door I put my bags down and he follows after me.

"Don't worry I can just sleep on the couch" he says and I turn to him frustrated and confused.

"Do you really think I would have said to get this room and then make you sleep on the couch?" I snap at him.

"Well I just didn't think we were back to where we were" he answers and I roll my eyes.

"Maybe not but we can share the bed. It's not a big deal; it's not like I'm saying we have to have sex or anything" I say all worked up and he laughs at me.

"What" I bark back at him.

"You're really cute when you're angry." He smiles at me then walks over and kisses the top of my head.

"I'm going to go have a shower" he says and grabs his bag then walks into the bathroom. I quickly change into a tee-shirt and some shorts then crawl into bed deciding I could just shower in the morning.

I doze off and the next time I wake up I see Ezra in nothing but pyjama pants crawling into bed which causes the corners of my mouth to pull up into a small grin. I notice he stays far to the other side of the bed as if I have some terrible disease. My lips fall into a pout and I decide to show him it's okay. I roll myself further to his side and he continues to scoot over trying to give me room probably thinking I'm asleep. Soon he is to the edge of the bed and I manage to rest my head on his chest. After a minute he relaxes and wraps his arms around my body and before long I fade away into the most peaceful sleep I've had in a long time.

Ezra POV

I wake up to find my arms wrapped around aria and her body snuggled into mine. I feel so peaceful but as she starts to stir I wonder if this would be too much for her too soon. Obviously subconsciously we managed to get ourselves wrapped up like, there was no question there was an attraction between us, but it was the conscious realistic part that was telling us how stupid we were to think this could work.

Before I could convince myself to pull away from her she wakes up and rolls to face me. Instead of saying anything she just leans in and gives me a soft peck on my lips.

"Morning" she whispers once our lips detach.

"Good morning, did you sleep well?" I ask suddenly wide awake.

"Better than you could ever know. Just having you here made me feel safe. And the wake up wasn't too bad either." She smirked at me.

"Oh really?" I ask joking around with her. "Could I have improved upon it?"

"No, I mean it was perfect just a bit too short." She smiled at me still laying only inches away.

"Well I can fix that" I say quietly as I lean in to reach her lips. After about five minutes of rolling around on the bed she breaks the kiss.

"I'm going to go get ready" she tells me as she gets out of bed.

"Fine" I sigh in a joking tone which brings a smile to her lips. "Then we can go get breakfast and get on the road?" I continue.

"Yah sounds good." She says and then walks into the bathroom.

Once we are both dressed and ready for the day we walk out of the hotel room hand in hand. She swings our hands as we walk down the sidewalk looking for a cute restaurant to eat at.

"What are you thinking about?" I ask smiling at her as I see that she's completely lost in her thoughts.

"You" she says and smiles but then it quickly fades as she looks down. "About how perfect this is. About how I don't want to go back home" she continues.

"Aria, this is perfect and I don't want to lose this either, so we won't. Nothing will change when we go back to rosewood." I try to reassure her although I'm not sure I believe the words myself.

Aria POV

"You're a terrible liar. You know everything will be different, we have to hide, I mean if you even want to stay together?" I say hitting the always delicate topic for us, the future.

"Aria I have told you so many times that I love you. Do you really think that I would leave you once we got back?" he says sounding offended and honestly I don't blame him, I basically just accused him of using me for the week and I felt sick for even implying such a thing. I knew we would have to deal with all of these assumptions once people found out about us and I needed to be able to prove to them, to show them with complete confidence that we both love each other and that we are both equally involved in this relationship.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I just want to make sure that we are really together again, I mean we never really discussed it." I say hoping he won't be angry with me.

"Of course we are really back together. And since we are I think that we will need to tell your parents once we get back" he says and as much as I would love to be out in the open I'm not really confident with that plan.

"I'm not sure about that, but we can talk about it later, right?" I ask and press a sweet kiss to his lips in an attempt to end the conversation.

"Whatever you want" he says and we walk into a nice little café to enjoy the morning.

After an hour we decide to hit the road again and I'm having a great time until I look down at my phone. I had been trying to ignore everything back in rosewood but now it was hard to do that, I had twenty-six missed calls. Two from Spencer before we had talked, two from Hannah, one from Emily and twenty-one missed calls from my parents. I knew I was in huge trouble, I knew that they were probably worried, but I also knew that once I went home I would probably never be allowed out of the house again. Ever. Ezra noticed the change in my facial expression almost immediately,

"Honey what's wrong?" he asked nervously probably still thinking that I wasn't sure about us which was funny because he was the only thing in my life that I was completely positive about.

"My parents, they called me twenty-one times, twenty-one Ezra, they are going to kill me." I said dreading the return to rosewood even more.

"It'll be okay babe. Don't worry we will figure it all out." He said and reached to hold my hand on the center console of the car.

"I hope so" I said and couldn't help but smile when he brought my hand up to my mouth and kissed it softly.

"I know so" he said and we spent an hour driving in a comfortable peaceful happy silence.

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**Yes everything seems happy now but things are about to get CRAZY! let me know what you think... :)**


	11. Chapter 11 in a New York minute

**Authors note: Hi everyone :) Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter (glad to have the guest reviews again)! Hope you enjoy this one a lot, it is a definite game changer! Really want everyone's opinions so PLEASE review :)**

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**Chapter eleven – In a New York minute **

Ezra POV

I looked over to the passenger seat and saw aria was about to doze off when something else caught my eye. In the rear view mirror I could see a cop car that appeared to be following us. I leaned to get a better view which must have woke up aria.

"What are you doing?" she chuckled confused.

"Nothing" I say and shake it off. I am probably just being paranoid, I'm sure the car will pass us any second now. I mean why would this seem wrong to any passer-by? Other than in rosewood no one would know anything about us and we weren't in rosewood. We weren't even in the same state.

"No really what's wrong? You look anxious" she asked and was instantly from her serene sleeping state into her full on panic mode.

"I'm sure it's nothing." I say turning away from her and trying to look like I'm focused on the road.

"Ezra tell me!" she said getting frustrated. I know I have to tell her because she is not one to give up.

"Fine there is a police car behind us and it's probably nothing but I didn't notice until a minute ago, I don't know why but I feel like they are following us." I attempt to say calmly not wanting her to know how scared I am.

"What!" she says and her whole body visibly tenses.

Then in one second everything is changed. Without thinking about it aria turns her head looking out the back window to see the police car then the sirens start to wail. They must have been waiting to confirm it was her and now that they knew, that was it.

"Ezra what's happening" aria cried.

"It's probably nothing, it'll be okay" I lied as I went to pull over the car knowing that things were about to change and not for the better, but I had to be brave for her.

"No it's not! And it's not okay! Don't pull over what the hell are you doing!" she screeched and went to reach for the wheel. Apparently that did not look good to the police as they speed up to get to the side of the car attempting to push us to the side.

"Aria we have to pull over!" I yelled and instead of getting upset by my anger it only made her more determined.

"No Ezra! No! You know that it can't be good, whatever it is! You will get in trouble, go to jail and me I will get a slap on the wrist and sent back out to play! No, I won't let this happen to you." She yelled and tears poured out.

"Aria, this won't help. We have to pull over." I say trying to calm her down.

"Ezra" she choked out between what were now sobs.

"It's okay Aria." I said as I pulled to the side of the highway.

"I'm sorry" she squeaked.

"Aria I wouldn't take back a day of this trip, even knowing that we would end up here." I tell her honestly and stroke the side of her face.

"I love you" she whispers and then leans in to kiss me neither of us knowing if we will ever get the chance again. Because of this it's not a soft kiss, it's an urgent passionate desperate kiss. Her lips crush down on mine and I pull her body closer.

Then the doors of the car open and we spin around. There is one man at aria's door and another at mine. "Honey it's all going to be okay" the cop standing outside the passenger side says to Aria and she turns to me in tears.

The police officer on my side is not as kind as he grabs me pulling me out of the car. Then she screams. "You are under arrest!" the officer says as he pushes me against the car putting handcuffs around my wrists.

"For?" I ask and I can see aria out of the corner of my eye in hysterics.

"Let him go!" aria screeches as the other officer tries to take her to calm her down.

"For kidnapping miss Aria Montgomery." He tells me.

"Are you kidding me?" I say in disbelief and the officer answers not understanding that it was a rhetorical question.

"No I am not kidding" he yells at me and I am instantly frustrated by the way he treats me, it's not like I'm being violent or even rude to him. Aria on the other hand is struggling out of the reach of the officer and is doing everything she can to get him to let go I see as she stomps on his foot and pushes him as hard as she can.

"Miss Montgomery was reported missing yesterday night and now she is found in your presence. Where is your ID?" he asks.

"In the car in my wallet, center console." I admit knowing things are about to get worse, not that he probably doesn't already know who I am. He goes to the car to get it and returns with a smug look on his face.

"I see Mr. Fitz that you are twenty-three. Seven years older than Miss Montgomery, and while you are an adult she is still a minor, hence 'kidnapping'. But now we are going to have to look into some other things." He says and I know I have to ask as much as I don't want to know. Aria has gone silent while the man talks trying to hear exactly what the situation is. The man with her thinks it's the shock wearing off and his brilliant work to comfort her that calms her down but I know that he is in for a surprise. As his grip starts to loosen on her she looks at me still crying but still sure of herself.

"Such as?" I finally ask.

"Well after seeing the struggle between the two of you in the car and then the kiss that you forced onto her, rape and corruption of a minor." He says looking at me disgusted. I take a deep breath before speaking but don't get the chance after Aria's reaction.

She pushes herself out of the grip of the guard while screaming at the officer who is with me. "You son of a freaking bitch! How dare you! He has never raped me!" she yells with utter disgust for the man in her voice. "And you have to be an idiot if you think he was forcing himself onto me! I love him, let him go!" she yells at him getting closer and looks like she is ready to kill him as the other officer runs after her.

"Aria stop. You're not helping anything." I say to her while the officer pulls her hands behind her back and puts handcuffs on her.

"I can't just stand here!" she says and then turns to the man putting metal around her wrists. "What are you doing!" she yells at him.

"You need to be restrained miss." He says and pulls her towards my car.

"You are riding in the squad car and he will drive her to the station in her car." he explains and seems to be torn. Probably between what he is taught to think and what aria has said.

"Do you believe her?" I ask quietly once I'm sitting in the back of the car

"I don't get paid to believe anyone." He says.

"So is that a no" I persist.

"I have never seen a rape or even a kidnap victim ever try to defend the person who is guilty. I have certainly never heard them say I love you" he shakes his head in disbelief.

"So?" I push.

"So either you have her completely fooled or you're innocent." He says which ends our conversation to the police station.

"Yes I have miss Aria Montgomery." He says into his radio and just hearing her name sends a pain to my heart. I know she must be a mess by now. I know she will blame herself for whatever happens and the worse it is the more unwilling she will be to forgive herself. I'm worried for her even though I'm the one in trouble I'm worried about how she will react if I am sent to jail.

"Status?" the other side says back.

"She's healthy no physical harm. And she is a possible kidnap victim." He reply's and that 'possible' is the only thing that gives me any hope.

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**Okay! So I know that this chapter was very different and I want to know what people think because I am considering going a different direction with this so PLEASE let me know how you felt about this chapter and if you want to hear an alternative chapter! Thanks :)**


	12. Chapter 11 alterinitive hold the phone

**Authors note: Okay so this is the alternative chapter 11 as promised! I hope you enjoy and please review! Thanks as always to my reviewers and all the readers :)**

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**Chapter eleven - Hold the phone**

Aria POV

Slowly I woke up stretching out my legs and arms in the cramped space. As consciousness came back to me I realized I was in the car and that my amazing boyfriend was at the wheel driving as he had been before I fell asleep.

"Good morning sleepyhead" he says from the driver seat while noticing me stirring.

"Hi" I mumble groggily as I rub my eyes still not entirely awake earning a chuckle from him. "How long have we been driving?" I ask disoriented scooting back up into the seat.

"Well you have been sound asleep for about three hours. I was just thinking about stopping for some late lunch if that sounds good to you?" he answers and I nod my head.

"Was I really asleep that long? You could have woke me up, I mean you must have been bored?" I tell him feeling slightly guilty since the trip had been my idea in the first place.

"No you looked tired and peaceful; I didn't want to wake you. I was just thinking anyway." He answers shrugging his shoulders. I look out the window and see that he is taking the off ramp so that we can go get something to eat.

"What were you thinking about?" I ask curiously turning back to him.

"Nothing in particular. Just life." He says nonchalantly and as much as I want to know I decide not to push him. It's not like he's hiding anything I tell myself but still can't keep the small frown from pulling at my lips.

As we pull into the parking lot of a small town restaurant he looks over at me and clearly notices the change in my mood. He gets out of the car and quickly comes around to my side and opens the door for me.

"Thanks" I say with a small grin but still sulking. As we walk in I see countless families and couples of all ages. Like rosewood I take it this is the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else but unlike rosewood I assume it is in a friendly, neighbourly way as opposed to the prying, snooping, ever nosy people of rosewood.

"This is what I was thinking about" he whispers down to me as we are seated at a booth near the back.

"Coming for lunch?" I question bitterly.

"No Aria, well actually, yes. About being able to just come and get lunch with you. About not having anything to hide. About how our life would be if it could just be this simple." He says smiling at me and instantly I feel ridiculous for being frustrated that he wouldn't tell me earlier.

"I'm sorry" I say quietly rolling my eyes at my behavior.

"I just thought it would be nicer to show you than to tell you" he chuckles "unless you think this is stupid, or boring or," he starts to ramble and I cut him off.

"No I think it is perfect. You have no idea how much I wish we could do this. How much I wish we weren't in rosewood with those people who would judge us. How much I wish we weren't in rosewood at all" I say getting lost in my own dreams of the future. Thinking of all the daydreams I have had about me and Ezra leaving and living a happy normal life together somewhere far far from that dreadful little town.

"Do you? Would you leave if you could? Do you wish that you were somewhere else?" he asks.

"Only if you came with me." I say looking deeply into his eyes and as much as my brain told me not to say it, that it was too much too soon, I couldn't keep the words from coming out, and the part I found most worrisome is that I meant it entirely.

"Really Aria?" he said not so much as question as asking for confirmation.

"Yes" I nodded. "I love you, you know that but I don't think you know how serious I am about it, about us. I don't think I knew either really, or I did for a while but I couldn't let myself see it while we were apart or I would have been a mess." I say admitting everything to him and pray he feels the same. I knew that I wasn't just a fling to him, but I wasn't sure if he knew I was planning a future for us, that I wanted him for the rest of my life, that I wouldn't make such a foolish mistake again and let him slip away.

Ezra POV

"Do you think about our future? Do you see one for us, together?" I ask her.

"Yes, do you?" she says and actually looks worried about what my response will be. Did she really think that I didn't intend to spend the rest of my life with her?

"Of course I do. I want you for the rest of my life Aria. Nothings the same when you aren't in my life. It's just I don't want you to feel like things are going too fast. I know you are younger than me and I'm sure you never think about" I start to say but stop myself.

"About what?" she asks and I just shake my head. "Ezra what won't you say?" she pushes

"I was going to say I'm sure you never think about getting married." I admit to her even though I don't get my hopes up I can't help but wish she thinks about the same things.

"Of course I have. I've thought about us moving away, and getting married, and buying a pretty house, and having kids, and living happily ever after." She says smiling at me and although she seems happy I feel guilty. If she was dating someone her own age she would never be talking about marriage and having kids, she is only seventeen! I can't rush her life away.

"But aria, your still in high school" I say quietly not wanting to draw attention although the restaurant is full of many conversations and who here would be interested in our angst anyway.

"I know that, but it doesn't mean that I can't think about us. We have our whole lives ahead of us, I'm sure we have time for all that. Don't you think?" she says and gives me a smug look. Of course she's right. We have our whole lives to be together, there is no rush.

"Yes I would say so" I grin back at her and then lean into her lips for a kiss. As I run my hands through her hair she pulls away.

"Were in a restaurant" she giggles while blushing.

"Right, sorry. Your hair is a tad messed up" I laugh

"I will be right back then" she says with a smile and walks away.

I watch her walk down the hallway and sit there for a minute until her phone starts to ring. I reach across the table to see who is calling and pick up the phone once I read that the caller ID says spencer.

"Hey spencer, it's Ezra. Aria is just gone to fix her hair but I wanted to say thank you and tell you that everything is going well." I say with a chuckle.

"Ezra?" the voice on the other end questions which clearly is not Spencer.

"Who is this?" I ask as aria comes back into view and sits across from me.

"What's going on?" she asks with panic on her face.

"This is Ella Montgomery Aria's mother." The voice on the other end of the phone says and I can't bring myself to say anything. As much as I try when I open my mouth no sound comes out. What had I just done? I admitted to her mom I was away with her? As good as Aria is at lying I can't imagine she can work her way out of this one.

After a few seconds go by aria grabs the phone out of my hand anxious to find out what she is missing. "Who is this?"

Aria POV

As I walk back from the bathroom I hear Ezra talking to someone. At first I just assume it is a waitress since I can't hear the context but as I get closer I realize that he is on the phone, my phone. As I sit down I'm curious but as I start to hear what he says panic takes over.

"Who is this?" he asks sceptically.

"What's going on?" I say scared of what I may be missing. Was A on the other end of that call? Then as I hear a mumbling through the line his face drops. Instead of the curiosity that I could see seconds ago only fear was in his eyes now. Without thinking twice I grab the phone from his hands

"Who is this?" I bark.

"Aria?" the voice says and I recognize it instantly.

"Mom?" I say in shock.

"Aria who just answered your phone?" she asks and I start to panic. Before I can say anything else the phone is snatched from me and the end call button is pressed.

"What the hell did I just miss?" I ask him.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have answered it" he says shaking his head probably just as worried as I am.

"Why did you?" I ask frustrated.

"It said spencer! I wanted to tell her thank you, but then I told her it was me and when she started talking, well it was your mom." He explained quickly.

"Wait you said your name!" I shout and every eye in the restaurant turns to me. Normally I would be embarrassed but right now I was far too worried for Ezra to be concerned with what the people in the restaurant thought of me.

"Yes." He nods putting his head down as if he is admitting defeat.

"I have to call her back now!" I say and take the phone back out of his hands.

"What are you going to say?" he asks as I dial.

"I don't know, but I can't just let her call the police on you, or, or I don't know but I need to talk to her. We need to explain." I say and on the first ring she picks up the phone.

"Hello?" she says.

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**I would love to know if you liked the first version or this one better so please tell me in the reviews. I will most likely go with whatever the most people say so if you have an opinion please let me know :) I always love to hear what people are thinking.**


	13. Chapter 12 first impression

**Authors note: Hi everyone! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get another chapter up (you know how crazy back to school can be!) So I decided to go with... Drum roll please... The second version! (But I think I am going to post the other one separately for anyone who like that as well!) So picking up from the phone call here is chapter 12! Please review and tell me what you think! As always I hope you enjoy!**

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**Chapter 12 – First impression**

Aria POV

"Hello?" my mom answers her phone.

"Mom I need to talk to you. Please don't do anything drastic. Please, please, please don't call the police!" I say quickly hoping she hasn't already set her mind.

"Aria who are you with!" she yells.

"Ezra, Ezra Fitz." I answer since she already knows the truth.

"As in your English teacher!" she says, she must have known, really how many Ezra's are there? But I suppose actually hearing it changes things, she was probably praying that it was simply a coincidence but now the truth is out.

"Yes, but it's not like that, whatever your thinking. He's also my boyfriend, and I love him, so much." I say and he holds my hand across the table.

"Are you serious?" she asks in disbelief.

"Yes I am, and we are too, we are 100 percent in love. So don't take him away from me, let us explain. Please." I beg her.

"Where are you aria?" she asks quietly and I cross my fingers hoping she is at least considering meeting us.

"South Carolina?" I say trying to sound happy but picturing her exploding.

"Wh- wha-what!" she stutters.

"Yah, we are on vacation but we will meet you anywhere. We can drive back now and we will be there in like nine hours." I say and look to Ezra making sure that's okay, of course he nods to me.

"No, I will meet you half way. Leave now and tell me where you are in four hours so we can meet." She says, her tone angry and frustrated but I feel like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders know she will at least listen to what we have to say.

"Thank you mom! We are going right now." I smile hugely.

"I will see you in a bit" she says monotone.

"Yah, see you soon mom" I say but before I finish I hear her hanging up the phone. I press the end call button and throw my slam my phone onto the table.

"That's good aria! Why are you upset?" he asks as he walks over to sit with me.

"Because not only does she hate me, but just because she meets us doesn't mean she is going to accept us Ezra. I don't care if she never talks to me again, I mean I care, but if she can't accept us then she's not the person I thought she was. And if she doesn't accept us, if she says she is going to call the police on you, or forbid me to see you, I will leave. We can run, you and me. They won't find us. We can start a life somewhere else." I tell him in tears worried and he wraps his arms around me

"Aria it'll be okay. Don't cry baby." He says holding my tight to him.

"Let's go" I say wiping the tears away trying to strong.

"Aria, you don't have to pretend." He tells me looking into my eyes.

"I know, but we still have to face her. If it doesn't work out how we want just promise me we can go." I say quietly.

"Aria, we can't just run away." He shakes his head at me.

"Don't you love me?" I stammer shocked by his response.

"Yes! More than anything which is why I can't let you walk away from your family, your friends, your life!" he says not wanting me to be angry, which I'm not, but it doesn't mean I agree with him.

"Ezra, please you're all I have. Just promise me. We can have the rest of our lives, just like we wanted." I say softly running my hand along his cheek.

"If that's what you want then I promise. I just want you to be happy." He says then presses his lips to mine only for a second. "Come on we have got a mother to convince" he says giving me a charming smile as he slides out of the booth and holds his hand out for me to follow.

"Okay" I smile as I grab his hand and we walk out to the car.

"You know I'm kind of hungry considering we never ate at that restaurant" I joke while we start our drive and he smiles at me.

"Drive thru?" he asks and I nod with a chuckle.

After our second stop for breakfast we continue our drive not once bringing up the topic of my mother. As we hit the four-hour mark I see a text from my mom demanding to know where we were so I call her, thinking it would be easier.

"Mom." I say when she answers.

"Aria, where are you." She replies emotionless.

"In Virginia, we are getting close to Richmond. Do you want to meet there?" I ask.

"Twenty minutes, at McDonalds off the highway." She says

"You want to talk in McDonalds?" I ask full of sarcasm. Really she wanted to talk about my future in a place filled with kids yelling and a creepy plastic clown?

"No but we need a meeting place so I can find you" she says quietly, the fact that my temper isn't even effecting her scared me.

"Yah, okay. See you then." I mumble and hang up the phone.

"Ezra, what are we going to do?" I ask looking up at him with tears in my eyes.

"Just wait and see what she has to say before you panic. Please don't cry Aria, I've seen enough of your tears on this trip, I wanted you to enjoy yourself while we were together" He said rubbing my leg soothingly with one hand while driving with the other.

"I love you" I whimper trying to keep myself from crying but not doing very well.

"I love you babe, more than anything." He whispered as he parked the car in front of the McDonald's and wrapped his arms around my body, holding me tight to him. I scoot my body from the passenger seat to the drivers and situate myself on top of him before pressing my lips to his. Quickly we get caught up in the moment and my tongue is in his mouth while his fingers flutter at the bottom of my shirt. I nod my head pulling away momentarily from his lips so he can take my shirt off. My lips find his neck and I refuse to let go sucking on the tender skin for far longer than I should have causing a moan from him and a smirk from me. My lips land on his again and I start to unbutton his shirt as we kiss passionately. Not once do I recall that we are in a fast food parking lot until there is a loud knock on the window of the car causing me to jump.

Of course my mother is standing there looking completely repulsed at the sight of the two of us making out in my car. This wasn't the first impression I wanted her to have of Ezra. Ezra my boyfriend, not the Ezra she knows as my teacher or her co-worker, but at least the difference has been clearly distinguished now.


	14. Chapter 13 fifteen minutes of fame

**Sorry, i know it's taken a bit longer than usual again but it was my ****birthday yesterday, so you know:P hope you enjoy the chapter , review and let me know :) Thanks!**

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Chapter 13- fifteen minutes of fame

Aria POV

I sit there like a deer in head lights staring out the window at my mom as she stares in at me. It's almost like being a fish in a tank or an animal at the zoo the way she watches me, observing and noting my every move. I shudder thinking about how much she may have seen before she interrupted us.

"Aria" Ezra calls to me but I can't unlock my eyes from the gaze of my mother's, in fact I can't even move. Then before I realize what going on fabric is being slipped over my head and I am once again covered by more than just my bra. He goes to pull my arms through the sleeves and I pick up from there being knocked out of my trance. Ezra quickly pulls his shirt on and does up the buttons, for a second I consider helping him with them but with my mom looking in I decide the less touching the better.

"Ready?" he whispers once we are mostly presentable again. His hair looks crazy so I don't even want to think about what mine looks like. Quickly I dig though my bag grabbing a hair-elastic and pulling the mess on my head into some sort of ponytail.

"Yup, I mean what's the worst that could happen? We leave and then we can do that all we want" I say joking because if I don't I know I will burst into tears, that or be sick.

"Come on" he smiles at me and I open the door hoping off his lap onto the ground outside where my mom not so patiently awaits. After I'm out he follows and we stand side by side looking at my mother.

"Aria you come with me, now!" she yells and a family walking into the restaurant spectates whispering about the scene she is making, if only they knew the context.

"No!" I say strongly and wrap my arms around Ezra's waist. "You talk to both of us, not just me, I'm not a child." I tell her my voice on edge but I try to keep my temper under control, the fact that Ezra wraps his arms protectively around me as I talk definitely helps with the calming effect.

"You are sixteen Aria! Sixteen!" she screeches at me and then turns to him. "And you know that! How could you? How could you being doing what you were doing in that car with her knowing that she is still just a kid! You used her! How could you?" she yells but tears stream down her face.

"I would never use her. I love her. I love her so much, more than you will ever know. But she is not a child. She is a strong, smart, funny, beautiful woman and I treat her like one." He says delicately and I bring my lips up to his for a kiss by reflex.

"Aria! Stop, this is not appropriate you may not kiss him! Do you understand how much older he is than you?" she rants seeing my lips about to touch his again. I pull away from him and go to face her.

"This is perfectly appropriate! He loves me, and I love him! He is six years older than me, yes I know, and no I don't care. It doesn't matter because even though it doesn't look right it has always felt right and don't you dare say that I may not kiss him because I will do whatever I want with him. My sex life is between me and Ezra, not you!" I snarl at her.

"Sex….I suppose I shouldn't be surprised he is pushing you into that too. I mean seeing the way he had you in the car, you're lucky I'm not calling the police right now!" She choked out and any composure I had left flew out the window.

"Pushing me! Are you freaking kidding me? God did you not hear a word we said! He is not pressuring me, or forcing me, or anything else! And if you didn't get a good enough view from the car window he was the one against the seat I was the one on top of him." I shout and people begin to stare probably wondering whether they should call the cops or just stand there watching like we were a television screen.

"Aria we need to go take this conversation elsewhere, not that I think we have anything left to discuss but." She pauses waiting for my reaction.

"We have a lot more to say so, yes, your right. The hotel down the street? Follow us." I say walking back to get into the passenger side of my car but she catches my arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asks and doesn't let go of me.

"To get in my car, with my boyfriend." I snap yanking my arm away hard to get it out of her grip. "Ow" I mutter under my breath and Ezra looks down to my arm noticing the red marks I see at the same time caused by my mother's clasp. He brings his fingers up to them brushing it lightly and even though I know that physically it isn't helping, it makes me feel better.

"No, Aria you won't! Get your ass into my car now!" she says and I don't move one step.

"No" I say and watch her fume.

"So you want me to call the police? Right now? Because I could do that if you wanted?" She threatens and I walk up so I am only inches away from her.

"You do that and I would never speak to you again, for the rest of my life, I promise you. You know why? Because he is the only person I can't live without, so don't threaten him because if I have to choose between the two of you, it sure as hell won't be you anymore." I say into her ear so that none of the audience can hear me, I'm unsure if Ezra even heard me but that didn't matter he knew I was all his. She opens her mouth to say something but closes it again as I get into her car and slam the door.

Ezra POV

As aria stops over to her mother I can feel the anger radiating off of her and I think for a second if I should hold her back. When she gets up into her mother's face she talks quietly as not to let the crowd know what is going on.

""You do that and I would never speak to you again, for the rest of my life, I promise you. You know why? Because he is the only person I can't live without, so don't threaten him because if I have to choose between the two of you, it sure as hell won't be you anymore." She growls into her mother's ear barely loud enough for me to here and then walks to her mother's car, gets in, and slams the door.

"I drive, you follow" she mumbles and I nod my head at her. She pulls her car out of the parking lot and we drive down the road only a few minutes until we end up in front of the holiday inn. She parks and the second the car stops aria's door is already open and she is jumping out. When I open the car door she stands there waiting for me and reaches for a hold of my hand. As always I grip her hand tightly yet gently in mine but give her a questioning look as to whether or not we are pushing our luck, she just shrugs. I suppose we are screwed already so what difference did it make?

He mother goes up to the receptionist desk and comes back with a room key, without a word we walk to the elevator and follow her once we get onto the correct floor. She opens the door and motions for us to go in so I follow after aria, her hand still clutching onto mine.


	15. Chapter 14 have you forgotten?

**Authors note: Hi everyone! So do we all have a countdown to the Lucian Ustream? I know I do. Anyway back to the story hope you all like it and keep reading. Love your reviews so don't forget to review when you're done, it means a lot to me! Thanks as always**

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Chapter 14 - Have you forgotten?

Ezra POV

"Sit" she orders and I go to sit on the chair leaving the bed for aria, thinking her mother wouldn't be thrilled by the idea of us together on the bed even if we are only sitting. Of course aria is on a mission to either piss off her mother or prove a point, I'm really not sure which it is at this point, but she walks over and sits herself on my lap.

"Aria!" her mother shouts.

"What! We are sitting! That's all, you are in the room! I don't know what you think is going to happen? That he is going to get turned on by me yelling at you and pounce on me, right here, right now?" she exclaims and as funny as it might have been in another situation it only makes thing more incredibly awkward with her mother. Really she doesn't need to talk about getting me turned on by her because she does it a lot without even knowing.

"Aria that is not appropriate to say. And I don't want you sitting on him. Get over here. Now!" Her mom growls and aria's eye's narrow at her. I know she hates being treated like a child, and with me here especially I know she won't take kindly to being scolded by her mom.

"Your treating me like I'm a little girl still and I'm not. I won't let you talk to me like that. I am not a child and don't treat me like one in front of my boyfriend. We are leaving, come on Ezra. But don't worry mom I will make sure we get the room right next to you, I hear they have thin walls here." She smiles widely at her mom and I worry from the expression on her mom's face, she looks like she could faint right now. I'm sure the thought of your daughter having sex must make a parents stomach turn and I feel guilty. On the other hand I don't want to disagree with aria. I know I will pay for that but still we need to be mature about this. We need to talk to her mom, at least try to get this sorted out.

"Aria" I say taking a deep breath as I stand up.

"What?" she snaps at me, clearly I'm not following her directions well enough.

"I think we need to talk to your mom. I'm sure you two can both be mature about it. Speak like adults, so we can come to some sort of resolution." I say gulping knowing she won't want me to be on her mother's side. That's what she will think, I know her too well, but if we don't talk it over we will never last back in rosewood, and that's not an option. I need her now. Now that her lips have been on mine for the last few days I can't go without them again.

"Ezra" she growls.

"Ella can you talk to Aria?" I ask turning to her.

"She's my baby. Now she's running off and sleeping around with her teacher! I don't know, I just don't know who she is anymore" she whimpers tears running down her face.

"Your right mom you don't know who I am because when I grew up you didn't bother to find out. You were happy just pretending I was five, but I'm not. And I am not sleeping around. I am not some slut if that's what you think. I love him. He's it. Just him. For the rest of my life. Even when he argues with me and annoys the hell out of me, he is still the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, the man I want to marry, the man I want to have a baby with, and the man I want to grow old with. I want to spend forever with him mom, and if you can't understand how I feel, or at least try, I don't have anything left to say to you." She says full of emotions as she walks back over to me and wraps her arms around my waist snuggling her face into my chest when she is done talking. I pull her tightly against me and can feel she is crying now, I knew she couldn't hold on forever. I bring my lips down to kiss the top of her head her mom still watching our every move.

"You love him." her mom stutters looking as us, Aria wrapped in my embrace.

"More than anything" she smiles up at me her eyes still full of tears threatening to spill over. I want so desperately to kiss her, to take away her hurt but I didn't want to push her mother. No, you know what screw her mother, Aria needed me and I couldn't just back down. She puts her head back down sadly and I lift her chin up with the hand I take off her back. Lightly I press my lips to hers and she smiles into the kiss. It's soft and sweet nothing that would be disrespectful to her mother, just enough so Aria knows I'm here. As I pull away I kiss the tip of her nose and she giggles quietly then presses her face back into my chest.

"I love you baby." I whisper my lips close to her ear.

"I know, and that's all I need. As long as were in love we can get through anything, Right?" she mumbles against my shirt.

"I promise" I say to her and heard her sigh, both of us praying it's true.

"You love her Ezra? You really love my little girl?" she asks still not wanting to believe us.

"I do, with all my heart." I tell her mom and she looks like she is considering my words.

"See, I find that hard to believe when you could just as easily be using her for sex. How do I know?" She asks me and I know Aria doesn't want the truth to come out but it has to for her to accept us.

"Well, you see, you know I love her because we haven't had sex." I say and her face turns from disapproving and protective to completely lost.

"What? No Aria said that your sex life was between the two of you. Why would I believe when you say you two haven't after she said you have?" she asks trying to corner me into the truth not knowing Aria is the one lying.

"Because I was lying." She sighs clearly she has to back me up since I'm not the most trustworthy person in her mother's books right now. "I told you that because I was annoyed, because I want you to treat this like an adult relationship since it is, because that way it won't matter when we do" she pauses taking a deep breath then admitting the most prominent answer "because I wish we were."

Aria POV

"Because I wish we were." I sigh.

"But that's a conversation for another day" Ezra says quickly once I finish.

"Wait, so you two haven't?" she asks and we both shake our heads.

"And you are the one who wants to?" she asks me raising her eyebrows.

"Yes of course I want to. I mean I love him, and well, have you seen him?" I say with a chuckle. "And it's not that he doesn't want to, right Ezra?" I ask and both my mother and I turn to him expectantly.

"I mean, I," he stutters and then my mom cuts him off.

"But you are the one keeping you two from doing it?" she asks looking suspiciously between to two of us.

"Well, it's something we have sort of agreed to, at the moment." He stammers lying, I know he's trying to keep her from being mad at me but he's the one who needs protecting

"No, that's not true. I push him all the time, like constantly and somehow he has the restraint to keep us from going any further. Which annoys me like crazy, but I suppose I can see the reasoning now, and I'm sure you appreciate it. So you have Ezra to thank that I'm still a virgin" I say and roll my eyes but he pulls me tighter to him.

"Okay, I will listen. You have to tell me everything, from the day you met to now." She says sitting on the bed and I walk over to the other bed and crawl up facing her and sitting cross-legged.

"Ezra, come here" I say staring at him still standing unsure of what to do. After glancing quickly at my mom I walk over grab his hand and pull him to the bed where he sits down and I sitting leaning against him.

"Okay so we met on Labour Day, I was at a bar and I had no idea who he was." I start to tell our story.

We finish tell my mother our entire story and she sits there, silent. I don't realize how much I'm fidgeting until Ezra grabs the hand he's not already holding and slides his foot on top of mine stopping the consistent tapping. I look up to his face to see a small smile and I blush.

"Aria, Ezra, I just, I don't know how I can allow this. It's, it's not right." She says fighting herself, not sure what 'right' is anymore.

"It is though mom, it's so right. We are so right for each other. I love him; doesn't that mean anything to you? Have you forgotten what that means? Have you forgotten how it feels to be entirely consumed by someone, how it feels to have your passion control you, how it feels when nothing in the world matters except the two of you, there in the moment." I say and she looks wistful, probably missing those days. Either that would be the breaking point, the moment where her jealously would push her to take him away from me or that would be the point where she would understand, the moment where she knew exactly what I meant and she would want me to have everything she lost.


	16. Chapter 15 all or nothing

**Sorry everyone about the wait! I have a long weekend so i will see if i can get a bunch more done of the story, that way the posts will be more frequent! **

**Hope you like this chapter, review and let me know! As always I love to hear from you all and hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter 15- All or nothing

Ezra POV

She took a gamble; she risked it on her mother's past, on her feelings. I wasn't sure if she even knew what she wasn't doing until the words came out of her mouth because fear struck her eyes and she squeezed my hand tightly.

"I remember. It was a while ago, but I remember. And I miss it. Once it's gone you never get that back, some people never get it at all." He mom said quietly and I looked between the two of them. Aria seemed just as confused as me but neither of us dared to say a word.

"I don't think I could take that from you." She said softly and both our eyes lit up. I look down at Aria and before I can turn back to thank her mom Aria's arms wrap tightly around my neck and her lips meet mine passionately. There is no restraint to her this time, she doesn't care that her mom's in the room and as much as I know I should pull away, I have extreme difficulty with taking my lips away from my sexy girlfriend who has draped herself on me. Her mother clears her throat and I pull back although Aria still has her arms tightly around my neck.

"Thank you Mrs. Montgomery. Thank you! So much!" I say and Aria moves her arms from my neck to my waist while nodding to her mother and smiling up at me.

"Thank you mom. Thank you for letting me be happy. For letting me have everything that I wanted and fought for." She says and her mother rolls her eyes at her mushy testament.

"It's time that we get settled for the night now" her mother says and although I catch the hint Aria doesn't. Or if she does she blatantly ignores it.

"Okay, well goodnight mom. We'll see you in the morning." She says happily and goes to hug her mother when she says something catching her attention.

"Where do you think you're going?" he mom asks and Aria chuckles, thinking she is joking.

"To get settled for the night? Like you just said? We still have to check into a room and everything. I mean it's already nine now and honestly I'm exhausted from the day, and I wasn't even the one driving so Ezra must be ready to pass out." She rambles but her mother looks unimpressed.

"Aria, you're sleeping in here." She says in an emotionless voice, probably trying not to start a battle again. Hoping that Aria would just call it quits for the night but I know her far better than that.

"What?" she asks looking between us.

"Aria you didn't think I was going to let you sleep with him, did you?" her mom say with a laugh.

"Yes mom I did! We have been sharing a room the whole trip, No, actually we have been sharing a bed! And nothing has happened. Why can't you trust me? Even if we did have sex what would be so wrong about that?" she says getting frustrated.

"If you don't know than you wouldn't understand the answer." Her mom huffs and Aria glares.

"Oh I wouldn't understand! Because I'm such a baby! Right? Is that it! Ezra tell her that we can share a room!" she says turning to me for back up but I have no intentions to argue with her mother, who just accepted us.

"Aria, it's not a big deal. You spend tonight here and I will go get a room then maybe we can talk about it tomorrow?" I try to appease her but when I see the expression on her mom's face I take it as a no already.

"You too! Really? Fine. I'll stay here. Goodnight Ezra." she says then turns to go get her pajamas out of her suitcase. Clearly she is pissed off at me.

"Goodnight honey." I say and try to kiss her but she pulls away still angry. I can't remember her ever pulling away from me, it makes my heart sink.

"Okay, I'll see you in the morning." I mutter then turn to walk out the door, I look back and catch her looking at me.

Aria POV

Time for the plan. I know that I can pull this off, perhaps it's childish but it's the only way. My mom needs to think that I am pissed at him tonight, that way when I sneak out to go to his room she will never even suspect it. If we go to bed on good terms she will probably sleep with one eye open or stand watch in front of the door but this gives me a chance.

I knew the 'where I was sleeping' fight was coming so I waited until the words first came out of her mouth to get the plan rolling.

"Aria you didn't think I was going to let you sleep with him, did you?" she laughed

"Yes mom I did! We have been sharing a room the whole trip, No, actually we have been sharing a bed! And nothing has happened. Why can't you trust me? Even if we did have sex what would be so wrong about that?" I growl at her and as much as I believe this statement, I wouldn't have pushed my luck like this tonight if it wasn't for my hidden agenda.

"If you don't know than you wouldn't understand the answer." My mother huffs and that's where the real emotion comes from that makes my whole act so much more believable.

I think Ezra was doubtful at first but I had him convinced that this was serious now, which was exactly what I needed. I needed him to be in the dark for this but I did feel bad for playing with his emotions. I tried to let him know in a subtle way that I wasn't mad. I kissed him far more passionately earlier than I ever planned to with my mom in the room but I needed to let him know somehow, in some part of his mind that this was an act.

"Oh I wouldn't understand! Because I'm such a baby! Right? Is that it! Ezra tell her that we can share a room!" I shout and turn to him, knowing he will try to play the moderator and not want to aggravate my mom who just accepted our relationship.

"Aria, it's not a big deal. You spend tonight here and I will go get a room then maybe we can talk about it tomorrow?" he says nervously and after looking at my mother's face I notice his expression drops making me hold back a laugh.

"You too! Really? Fine. I'll stay here. Goodnight Ezra." I say trying to sound angry as possible but not sure I can pull off any more so I turn to walk over to my suitcase getting out of the spotlight before I blow it.

"Goodnight honey." He says walking over to me, where I'm digging through my suitcase to keep busy. He tries to kiss me and I pull away from him for the first time ever. I've never rejected him like that. I couldn't and I noticed the change in his demeanor. He is hurt.

"Okay, I'll see you in the morning." He says softly and turns to walk out of the hotel room door. I can't help myself from watching him walk away and he turns back to catch me staring. I'm not sure if he notices something is off or not, but in a few hours I will be cuddled up to his side so it won't matter.

I get pajamas and skip off to the bathroom to change taking a glance at my mother's expression along the way. It confuses me. She not only has a small grin on her face from winning but her eyes look sad, like she feels bad about our fight.

After getting changed I notice her lying in one of the two twin beds already.

"Hi" I say to my mother as I crawl up to the unoccupied bed where I don't plan on spending to long so put no effort into getting comfy.

"Aria, don't be mad at him." she says turning to look at me and my jaw drops. Did she really just take his side? I was thrilled that she was defending him; I was thrilled that she was defending our relationship.

"What?" I sputter out not knowing what else to say.

"Don't be mad at him, he's only trying to do what's right. Tomorrow don't hold it against him." she says and I nod my head.

"I know. I know he loves me and he just tries to keep everyone happy. Especially since you just accepted us, he didn't want you to hate him and he figured I'd get over it." I chuckle.

"Exactly. I still can't believe you love him Aria. Your teacher. Your grade 11 AP English teacher! I never would have guessed. I suppose that makes me a bad mom. You two were around each other enough, how couldn't I have seen it!" She says still trying to really process all this.

"I know, but I love him mom. And you are not a bad mom! You are a great mom, you listened to us and you didn't take him from me. He's the most important person in my world now; I would have been crushed without him. I know it's not conventional but we just couldn't give up on each other. I love him way too much for that." I say smiling.

"Go" she says exhaling a deep breath.

"What?" I ask looking completely confused.

"Go to his room. Spend the night there." She says slowly probably still debating the words she is saying.

"Really!" my whole face lights up. Apparently sneaking out wouldn't be necessary.

"Yes. Me keeping you apart tonight is not going to change anything. You've been sleeping with him all week so I don't know why I thought this night would change anything. Just the idea of you and him in a bed, it worries me still. He is older and I still see him as your teacher, as my friend, but I guess I will have to get used to the idea of him as your boyfriend." She says and I roll out of bed and walk over to my mother's bed. I sit on the edge and pull her into a hug which we both need. I've missed having her around. Of course she's been there but not to talk to. She never knew a thing and I'm glad she knows about Ezra and I because I want her to like him, considering he's going to be a part of the family one day.

"Thank you mom. I love you." I say as I grab my phone and start heading to the door. "See you in the morning." I smile widely at her and walk out into the hallway.

I look down at my phone and send him a message _what room number are you in? Aria_ I send and wait for him to respond as I walk down the hallway to the elevators. I push both the up and down button watching them light up to a bright orange.


	17. Chapter 16 i promise you

**Hi everyone! Here is another chapter for you all to read... hope you enjoy it, and PLEASE review :)**

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Chapter 16- I promise you

Ezra POV

I go down to the front desk for the second time that night and the man working at the counter notices.

"hello again sir" he says with a small smirk and with the way I am feeling right now I am quite tempted to give him a piece of my mind, but I don't.

"Hello, a room for the night, one bed" I say irritated. As much as I wanted Aria to be with me I knew she couldn't and she did too! She wasn't normally like that, in fact it was a rather childish thing to do and Aria was always extremely mature. The more I thought about the less sense it made. The man handed me two room keys, out of standard procedure although it still stung, and I handed him my credit card.

I went out to the car and grabbed my bag which I couldn't get earlier since one hand was holding Aria's and the other her suitcase. I walked back into the lobby and over to the elevators pressing the up button. The doors opened to reveal a couple, mid-twenties happily jabbering about something, without a care in the world. I pressed the level three button and scowled involuntarily at them, I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. I wished that could be me and Aria, I wish things were that easy for us, but they weren't. They never would be and we had to accept that. I did accept that because even if those simple moments were few and far between they meant all the more to us. Our relationship had endured so much that there was no question in our minds that it was love, pure undeniable devotion. It may have also been irrational and illogical, some people would call it crazy, but it was love at its absolute most.

When the elevator doors opened I walked down the hall with my bag and found my room, opening the door and throwing everything including myself on the bed. I laid there thinking about her until I heard my phone ding. What room number are you? Aria showed up on my screen and I eagerly answered her. She didn't seem to mad, although there was no 'xo' at the end or 'love you' like she normally signed a text. Room 307, are you still upset? I'm sorry babe. I love you and I will see you in the morning, coffee run? I texted her and patiently waited for a response. It didn't matter who was wrong and who was right, just that we didn't fight so if I had to apologize I was okay with that. I took off my dress shirt and my pants and pulled on a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and decided that shirtless was fine for tonight.

I was lying in bed waiting for a text back but instead of the sound of a cell phone receiving a message I heard a knock at the door. Who the hell was knocking at my door? It was ten o'clock, far too late for housekeepers or any other hotel staff, and I certainly wasn't expecting anyone else. I walked to the door opening it to find quite a surprise, aria. Before a word could come out of my mouth she crushed her lips to mine twisting her fingers through my hair and I pulled her body close to me. I loved how passionate she was, how her kiss could absorb my complete attention, nothing else mattered. I brought my hands down to her thighs and she jumped up wrapping her legs around my waist where I held her steady. I slammed the door closed behind us with my foot and carried her over to the bed where this deep heated kiss continued for a little longer. I knew she was tempted to continue and since I didn't have a shirt on in the first place her hands were lingering on the waistband of my pants. I broke away from the kiss and instead of the dirty look she normally gave me she smiled instead.

"Hi" she whispered happily.

"Hello gorgeous" I replied and she giggles.

"I'm sorry for acting like such a bitch earlier. It was all a plan so that my mom would think we were mad at each other and then I could sneak down here to sleep with you, but it turns out I didn't need it. She said that I could come stay in your room." She smiles at me, no wonder she was so giddy.

"Really she let you come sleep in the same bed as me?" I question and she nods enthusiastically.

"I can't believe you apologized" she snickered referring to my text.

"I hate it when you're mad at me." I answer and she snuggled herself up against my bare chest.

"I love you." She says simply and I know that there is great depth behind the words. If I asked her why she could talk for hours, but I knew that. I knew she meant it and when I said it back she knew that I meant it.

"I love you too. Is it time to go to sleep?" I ask her and she nods reluctantly.

"Well I doubt you're going to let us do anything else. Would that be a good assumption?" she asks with a smirk.

"Don't you know me well." I respond with a chuckle.

She rolls her eyes at me and although she doesn't say anything right away I know that words are on the tip of her tongue, she doubts herself for a moment. She pulls herself off of me and sits up on the bed.

"What is it?" I ask turning on the bed to look directly at her.

"When?" she asks looking down and tracing the pattern of the bedspread with her finger.

"When?" I repeat prompting her to continue although I am fairly certain I know what she means.

"When will you let us have sex? I mean you want to right? It can't just be me that feels like this." She says and I shake my head left to right.

"Of course I want to and just so you know you drive me absolutely crazy sometimes. I honestly had no idea that I had such good self-control, it's basically a miracle." I tell her joking but she doesn't look impressed by that answer.

"You didn't answer the question" she says flopping back onto the bed.

"I don't know what you want me to say?" I tell her honestly.

"Well what are we waiting for anymore? You're not my teacher. My mom knows about us, and accepts us mostly. I don't know what it is that's holding us back anymore?" She rambles while lying on the bed staring up at the ceiling. I consider the words she says. I would like her father to accept us as well but honestly, there isn't a reason to wait anymore.

Only one thing that worries me for her, the rumors that would spread if it ever got around. The horrible things people would say about her and names that they would call her. All of them being so far from the truth but high school students are cruel.

There was that, and the fact that I don't want aria to feel pressured. She has been pushing for sex, months before we broke up but I don't want her to regret it. I know she hasn't had sex before and a first time is not something you can take back. I want her to be ready, and sure, and happy about it not wanting to get it over with like so many girls I heard at that high school saying.

"Are you ready Aria?" I question in a very serious tone. She shoots up into a sitting position looking at me with wide shocked eyes, not expecting anything along those lines to come from my mouth.

"Yes. Yes, yes. I swear I am. I want you" she breathes heavily.

She takes my silence as an opportunity to come onto me and she wastes no time picking up right where we had left off, tangling herself in me. I roll myself on top of her and suck gently on her neck causing her to moan. Her lips find mine again and she waits for me to take off her clothes but I don't. Tonight isn't the night; it's simply what she is forcing. She is worried I will change my mind, but I won't. She is right. It's time now. There's nothing holding us apart and I want this as much as she does.

"Not tonight babe" I pull my lips away.

"Why?" She challenges.

"Because I don't want it to be a fight. I want both of us just to know it's time, and your right there's nothing to wait for anymore." I tell her.

"So no more fights about it." She says.

"No more fights, next time, when the time is right I won't stop us again." I tell her and pull her into my arms.

"You promise?" she whispers.

"I promise you" I say quietly and she cuddles into my side. I pull the blankets up around us and she falls asleep within minutes. I lay there listening to her steady breathing, admiring the beautiful girl whose head rests on top of my chest.

"Goodnight darling" I say and let myself drift off to sleep as well.


	18. Chapter 17 talk about Deja vu

**Hi everyone :) Worked on this over the weekend and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing! I forgot last week to mention how thrilled I was to get over the '100 reviews' mark! Thank you all SO much! I hope you continue to enjoy and PLEASE review :)**

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Chapter 17 - Talk about Deja vu

Aria POV

I wake up to a terribly annoying ringing. It won't stop! I reach over to grab my phone, shocked that Ezra can be sleeping through this. My mom was calling, again, and again. Waiting for me to pick up. I gently lift myself off the bed and walk into the bathroom so that I won't wake him.

"Mom, it is seven-thirty." I answer still exhausted from the events of the day before, I also wouldn't mind spending more time lying next to my handsome perfect boyfriend.

"I was just calling to see if you were up. And if you two wanted to go for breakfast?" she says quickly almost as if she is reciting something she had planned out.

"At seven-thirty in the morning? Really? I'm tired mom and he isn't even awake yet so maybe we can just go for lunch?" I counter offer, I know that she has another reason for calling but would prefer not to get into anything so early, especially since I have a hard time getting my thoughts straight.

"I suppose that would be okay. So…" she trails off and I know it's coming. The grand did you have sex talk. Today I would be able to say no. She would be relieved, but what she doesn't know is that we will. Sometime on this trip I will finally get to sleep with him. Just the thought of it made a grin form on my lips and my breathing quicken.

"So?" I say and dare her to answer.

"Come have breakfast with me. We need to talk, just you and me." She says and I consider this. The warm bed was beckoning me, but she was right. It was easier to get this conversation over with and not have to repeat this process every morning after I stay in his hotel room. Our hotel room.

"Okay" I say and while pausing to let go of the breath I was holding she cuts in.

"I will come met you at your room, what number are you two?" she asks and I am reluctant to answer. Quite honestly I don't want her knowing which room we are, and I certainly don't want her coming up here now to inspect it. To see Ezra sleeping shirtless which could be mistaken for naked since the blankets were pulled up to mid stomach.

"How about I meet you in the lobby, it'll take me a while to get ready and I don't want to wake Ezra up." I answer.

"Alright, half an hour?" she sighs in defeat.

"Yah, sounds good" I say and then feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist startling me and causing a squeal to escape from my lips. Of course it was only Ezra and he chuckles at my reaction making me smile as well. He doesn't let go of my waist though which momentarily distracts me and I realize my mom is talking.

"What was that?" my mom asks anxiously. Ezra is close enough that he can hear the words she says and he waits for my lie.

"Nothing, I just" I start to say and that's when his evil streak comes out. He brings his lips down onto my neck from behind me and I lose focus of my words. "I, I dropped something." I stammer. I bite down on my lip to keep a moan from coming out. That would not go over well on the phone with my mother.

"Are you sure everything is okay?" She asks curiously.

"Yah, everything is great." I mumble quickly as he continues to suck on the skin. He is driving me crazy. All I want right now is to end this phone call and turn around throwing myself onto him.

"Ok see you soon" she says and hangs up on her side. Instantly I spin around to face him.

"That was not very nice!" I say and he smirks at me.

"Oh really? So you're saying I shouldn't do that again?" he asks jokingly.

"That is definitely not what I said" I reply while wrapping my arms around his neck then bringing my lips to his. After only a few seconds he pulls himself away.

"Good morning" he whispers in my ear.

"Morning, you slept well" I smile and he nods.

"Why are you up so early?" he asks and I growl.

"My mom, she called again, and again, and again. Until I finally picked up the phone. She wants me to go have breakfast with her, talk, you know, about all of this." I tell him, motioning to the room around us then the space between us.

"Whatever am I supposed to do while you're gone?" he asks smiling, I shrug my shoulders playfully before placing a peck on his lips.

"I don't know, I'm sure you can come up with something but I need to get ready, or I'm going to be late" I say and he presses a kiss to my forehead before backing out of the bathroom and closing the door behind him. I quickly jump into the shower and wrap a towel around me when I'm done venturing out into the room to get makeup, hair products and clothing from my suitcase. Talk about Deja vu. This time though I strut out with all my confidence fully expecting him to be watching me, which he does.

"Hello again" I smile at him as I catch him gawking.

"Hello gorgeous, would it be terribly inappropriate of me to say how fantastic you look in a towel?" he says his boyish grin gracing his lips.

"Not at all" I answer and then looking around realize my suitcase is still upstairs. I wonder if my mom knew that, maybe she was counting on having to bring it to me? Perhaps that's why she gave up her argument so easily.

"Ezra, could I ask you a teeny tiny favor?" I ask putting on my sweetest smile and batting my eyelashes at him.

"Hmmmm, I don't know. From the looks of it I'd say it probably isn't so 'teeny tiny'." He laughs and I frown theatrically, knowing he is only joking.

"Yes, of course what do you need?" he says and I chuckle at his silliness.

"Well, could you go up to my mom's room? My suitcase is up there so, you know, I'm kind of naked right now." I tell him and he raises his eyebrows at me.

"So what exactly would persuade me to get that?" he jokes walking over to me.

"Well as entitled as you are to see, the rest of the hotel I'm thinking not so much. I didn't really think you were interested in sharing me" I play along and he shakes his head at me.

"Nope. You are all mine." He says then he pulls me in by my waist and presses a light kiss to my lips. "I'll be back" he whispers and then heads to the door making me laugh at him.

Ezra POV

"What?" I ask spinning around as I hear her laughing behind me.

"You might want a shirt. I mean I know my mom had a crush on you once upon a time, so there's really no need to rub it in that I got you and she didn't." she giggles an I look down to see that my chest is still bare.

"Would you like to toss me one?" I ask with a smile seeing that she is standing in front of my bag.

"Under one condition" she says pulling out a dark blue tee-shirt that I know she loves, considering she wears it as often as she can. Once in fact it went missing for weeks only for me to find it 'mysteriously' appear in my drawer.

"What would that be?" I ask her as she walks closer to me holding the shirt behind her back.

"That it comes off the second you get back." She says with a smirk and runs her hands down my chest making me shiver under her touch.

"You have yourself a deal." I say then take the shirt that she holds out to me quickly slipping it over my head.

"Love you" she says and leans up for a quick kiss.

"I love you too" I answer and the head out the door and walk to the elevators


	19. Chapter 18 I need to ask you something

**Hi everyone, sorry it took a bit longer than expected to put this chapter up. but anyway, this chapter was a great lead into where the story is going (which is always good) but also had a bit of humor in it so I hope you enjoy! As always thank you all for reading and PLEASE review :) By the way happy belated Ezria day- a much loved 'holiday' by us all :P**

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**Chapter 18**

Ezra POV

I knock on Ella's hotel room door, formerly Ella and Aria's.

"Hey honey I figured you would- oh, you aren't Aria." She says after opening the door enough to see that I was clearly not the petite brunette girl.

"No, I'm not. Just on orders to come up and get a suitcase." I chuckle and I see a small grin on her lips. She motions for me to walk into the room and closes the door behind me before leading to where I had place the suitcase last night.

"Why didn't Aria come up and get it? I thought you were sleeping?" he mother answers and then blushes a bit after admitting her and Aria had been talking about me this morning. "I mean, Aria said that you were, while we were on the phone. I was going to invite you both for breakfast." She adds quickly.

"I just woke up, and aria was naked so." I tell her and then instantly wish I could take it back. "I mean, she was in a towel! She just got out of the shower! She couldn't come up in a towel, obviously, so she asked me to get her suitcase for her. We weren't, I mean…" I ramble making things terribly uncomfortable but then her mother speaks again and the words out of her mouth are not the angry protective ones I expected to hear from a mother who just was told her daughter is naked downstairs with an older man.

"Well, since you said that, I need to ask you something." She says quietly and doesn't look directly at me.

"Um, sure Mrs. Montgomery. What is it?" I ask as I lean back against the TV stand in the room.

"It's Ella, and, Last night, did you two? You know…" she trailed off and I shook my head back and forth quickly, terribly embarrassed with the situation. I felt like a teenager again, there was no reason that a 23 year old man should be being asked if he is having sex with his girlfriend, but when she is 16 it certainly raises more questions.

"No, no we didn't" I say.

"Okay, good. After letting her go down there I really didn't want to regret it." She answers and it makes me think back to the promise I made to Aria. Before this trip was done she would expect us to have sex, I knew that, I knew her.

"Ella, would it" I say and then cut myself off. No, I have to ask. Aria won't, she will do what she wants to with no regards to what her mother wants but I can't afford to do the same. I need her family to accept me. "Ella, would it be that… unacceptable, if we did though?" I say shyly and wait for her answer. She looks around the room and then as she turns back to me. She closes her eyes tightly for a few seconds, not saying a word and making me more anxious.

"Why do you ask Ezra?" she finally says.

"Well, I know aria won't ask. I don't want you to be angry, or for it to come as a shock if we do. Sorry, when we do." I reply and I can see she is uncomfortable. Maybe even more uncomfortable than me, which would be pretty damn near impossible. I'm sure that she never expected to have this conversation with me. We used to be two adults, talking at the staff table of the local high school. Our conversations used to revolve around curriculums, novels, and every now and again students. And now I was the man asking her for permission to date her daughter, and sleep with her.

"It's such a big step. I don't want her to regret this later. I don't want you to break her heart. I don't want her to be crying in my arms and asking me why I ever let her date her teacher and let her lose her virginity to him, I don't want her to ask me why I didn't protect her. " Ella says and I can tell that she is confused. She is overflowing with emotions, and I understand that but the words still hurt.

"I would never hurt her Ella. I would never leave her. I would never break her heart. Aria is so very important to me. I plan to spend the rest of my life with her. I love her." I say meaning every single word.

"Is she ready Ezra? Is she really ready to have sex?" Ella asks so I nod timidly in response.

"She's been ready for a while. I would never push her. I made it very clear from the beginning that we can wait as long as she wanted, but now she doesn't want to wait anymore. We talked about it last night, and she told me she is ready. So I told her that I wouldn't stop us anymore. We both know it's time." I tell her hoping that she can understand.

"I'll talk to her today." She says as her only reply but I take it as a good sign.

"Thank you. For accepting us, if not approving of us." I say as I grab the suitcase and turn to leave the room of tension and return to the one where I know the girl in the towel will be awaiting my arrival, and demanding me to remove a piece of clothing the moment I step in the door.

"I trust you. You love her. You want what's best for her, and I really can't ask for more than that." She says then a little grin come up on her face. "Take her some clothes".

"Thank you, I will see you later" I say and wheel the suitcase out of the room and head back down to our hotel room. It felt nice to say our room. Everything seemed so much more real now, so much more official.


	20. Chapter 19 he is dead

**Hi everyone, I really like this chapter and think it is a big turning point making everything very real, so I hope you really enjoy! And I know I havent said this in a while so apologies to the writers and anyone else, but of course I don't own PLL. Please let me know what you think, your reviews keep me motivated! Thank you so much for reading!**

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**Chapter 19 - he is dead**

Ezra POV

"Hey babe" I say walking back into the hotel room only to find there is no response. "Aria?" I call out again beginning to worry. "Aria?" I walk into the main room looking for her and see nothing which worries me more. She was in a towel, where would she have gone. Suddenly I feel a pair of arms twist around my waist and her fingers sliding up my shirt.

"Boo" she says softly with a giggle and I turn around to see her.

"You scared me" I say looking at her pleased smile.

"Then I guess were even aren't we?" she smirks and I shake my head.

"No, I thought you went missing or, I don't know but I was about to have a panic attack" I say with a chuckle passing it off as joking when she has no idea how serious I am.

"Sorry" she say looking me right in the eye and I start to think maybe she does know how much I truly meant it.

"I love you" I whisper her face now very close to mine until she closes the gap pressing her lips against mine. We stand there kissing softly for a moment until she pulls away.

"I love you too, and as much as I would like to stay I have to go have breakfast with my mother." She says which makes me laugh, she has no idea what is in store for her.

"Alright go" I say and kiss the top of her head before she rolls her suitcase into the bathroom behind her to get ready.

Aria POV

I try to take as little time as possible getting ready and pull on a nice day time dress, nothing too sexy, and nothing that makes it look like I'm trying to be a perfect little daughter because I have nothing to prove. I walk out of the bathroom hair curled and makeup on to see Ezra lying on the bed reading a book.

"I'm going for breakfast, see you in like an hour?" I say catching his attention and bringing his eyes up from the word filled pages in his grasp.

"Of course honey, have fun" he says with a little grin and I wonder what he finds so funny. This is not going to be fun for me. I have to bring up me and Ezra planning to have sex, or wait until she mentions it which would be just as awkward. I could of course just say that we hadn't and carry on, never saying that we will or when we will which is sounding like a better idea every second I get closer to having to bring it all up.

"Thanks" I mumble and turn to walk out the door.

"Love you" he calls out to me and I spin back towards him before closing the door behind me.

"Love you too" I smile then walk down the hall preparing myself for what lay ahead.

When I reach the lobby I see my mother sitting in one of the chairs waiting for me. She stands up when she notices me and walks over giving me a hug.

"Hi honey, how's it going" she says awkwardly as we walk towards the restaurant attached to the hotel.

"Good, yah. You?" I say desperate for the topic to be her night not mine. In reality my night was much better than 'good'. Words in my mind are more along the lines of fantastic, wonderful, elating.

"Good, thanks for asking." She says and we reach the Maître d' waiting to lead us to our seats.

"Good morning ladies, just the two of you this morning?" he asks with a bright smile.

"Yes thank you" I respond with a quick smile and he motions for us to follow as he leads us to a table by the window displaying the beautiful scenery outside.

We sit in silence looking at our menus until our waiter comes. We both order food and make small talk waiting for it to arrive. After the waiter sets my omelet in front of me and her pancakes in front of her things become more tense each bite that we take without a word between us.

"So, how was your night?" she asks breaking the silence and I take a deep breath.

"It was good. I mean it was late by the time I went down there so we just went to sleep." I tell her and she doesn't respond instead she just looks at me, something in her eyes that I can't place.

"Really, I swear we just slept" I say again trying to reassure her but instead of agreeing or questioning me she just laughs.

"I know Aria." She says causing me to relax but then thinking about the words I become curious. She could have said "I believe you" or something along those lines but no, she said "I know".

"What do you mean, 'you know'" I question and she smirks.

"I talked to Ezra this morning, you know your personal bellhop." She laughs and I smile a bit but then I get back on topic.

"You, you asked him! You asked him if we had sex!" I exclaim far too loudly and the people at the tables next to us turn to look at me but I just roll my eyes and continue. "God mom! How could you do that? He is not a child; you should not be butting into our personal life."

"Aria, I didn't ask, calm down" she says looking around to see who was still watching us and I shake my head at her.

"If you didn't ask then… oh my god. Did he tell you…? Oh god. I am going to kill that man. He is dead, so dead." I rant on and she just waits for me to finish and although I wasn't sure where this rant should end I had to take a breath which gave her enough time to cut in.

"Aria, he is just trying to make this as right as it can be. He told me you two talked about it, so I figured as your mother it was my job to talk to you as well. See the thing is I need to know. I need to know if you're really ready for this Aria. Are you ready to sleep with a man who is seven years older than you?" she asks me and I look right at her. I know this should be embarrassing and in a way it was but now it was just the truth. I needed her to see that we were right for each other; to see that this was an adult relationship and that after today, what Ezra and I do should only be his and my concern.

"Yes mom. I love him so much and I've been ready for this for a while now. He never pushed me, he never pressured me. I want this. I trust him and I know he loves me. This is about Ezra and me, not you and me. I wish he hadn't asked for your permission but now that he has I suppose all that's left to do is tell you the truth. I'm not looking for you to give him a stamp of approval, or to give me a thumbs up or anything like that. All I want is for you to respect that I am a mature adult who is more than capable of deciding what she wants and I've decided. He is all I want. He is all I am ever going to want so I don't know why we would put off something we are both ready for." I tell her each word just coming to me effortlessly.

"I love you Aria. To me you will always be my baby girl, but I know that you're a woman now. Not only are you a woman but you are a women who is dating a very kind, caring man who loves you enough to risk everything just to be with you. I just needed to know that you were committed to him. He is very serious about you Aria, he isn't just fooling around and I wanted to make sure that before you took such a huge step you were really ready, and you are." She says slowly making sure I catch every single word and by the time she finishes my face lights up like a kid on Christmas morning.

"So you are okay with this? You don't hate me?" I ask her, even though I had been trying to play it tough of course I cared what she thought, she was my mother.

"No I don't hate you baby, and just so you know I don't hate him either." She says with a smile

"Really?" I ask her still smiling widely.

"He's a good guy. A really good guy who really does love you, and for the record he has my stamp of approval" she says mockingly.

"Har de har har. Aren't we funny" I kid and she laughs again, the atmosphere of the table going from extremely intense to bubbly all in a matter of minutes. "Next time remind me to come up for my suitcase" I smirk which causes her to laugh harder confusing me since it really wasn't that funny.

"Well I think that might have been a bit of a problem today considering you were naked and all" she says still laughing.

"What!" I yelp. How did she know that? Oh Ezra was dead. Dead, dead, dead. "I was in a towel" I correct and she just laughs some more.

"Hey that's none of my business right?" She says with a smile raising her eyebrows at me and then gets up from the table. "You can get the tab right?" she asks. She was definitely taking advantage of the whole 'I'm an adult' thing.

"Sure, no trouble at all!" I say with fake enthusiasm.

"Great, see you two for dinner?" she asks me and I nod.

"Mom" I call as she goes to leave the restaurant.

"Yah" she responds turning back to face me.

"Thank you" I say with complete seriousness. She knew what I meant, she knew that I meant thank you for everything. Thank you for understanding. Thank you for accepting him. Thank you for raising me to be the strong woman I am today who fights for what she wants.

"You're welcome Aria." She says looking into my eyes and I see one tear roll down her face as she walks away.


	21. Chapter 20 executive decision

**AN: hello everyone! Loving the reviews so thank you, and now there have been a few questions that I need to answer. **

**1) When are they going to have sex? Answer, I really don't know. I want it to make sense and seem natural so until I get there in the story I really can't say. (But I would assume it will be in the next few chapters). **

**2) Did Ella lie about asking Ezra if they had sex? Answer, technically yes. It was more of a fib than a lie though as I see it since even though she asked he still brought up the whole 'is it okay if we' thing afterwards, when really the conversation could have stopped at no. I think it was more the 'him asking about them having sex' that was key in that chapter and really otherwise Ella and Aria wouldn't have gotten into the conversation they did. It was the best way I could think to write it so that Aria calmed down enough to listen and it didn't get off track. I was considering making it into a bigger deal but the story kind of went away from that as I kept writing (and it really wasn't a big enough lie to start any drama) so I would just consider it basically nothing (at the moment anyway). **

**Honestly I am flattered by the questions because it makes me see that people actually read and are actually interested which is amazing. This story is getting quite long now (this is chapter 20, landmark!), and since it was my first I wasn't sure how it would go so I'm glad that the readers are still enjoying. And I don't own pretty little liars, unfortunately. Sorry for so many words, here's the story, hope you enjoy and please review ****Thanks**

Chapter 20 - executive decision

Aria POV

I quickly cover the bill and then head up to our room. Our room, it sounded so nice, but it was going to get ugly. He was getting an earful from me. I couldn't believe he had told my mother anything about our sex life, really what was he thinking? As I get to our room I knock on the door and he comes to answer it.

"You mister are in big trouble I can't believe" I start to ramble until his lips land on mine. I completely forget about the fact that I was angry with him and let him lead me over to our bed. His lips move perfectly around mine and his tongue finds its way into my mouth much to my approval. After a few minutes he pulls away with that perfect grin on his face.

"Are you still mad?" he asks and I shake my head laughing at how adorable he is.

"Then tell me how it went" he says while we both are still lying on the bed.

Ezra POV

We are both lying on the bed my arms wrapped around her as I wait for her to tell me how things with her mom went after my morning conversation with her.

"She likes you. She knows you love me and that I love you. She knows you respect me, and she respects you because of it. She wanted to make sure I was as committed to you as you were to me, and she said that she respects the fact that we are both responsible adults who are capable of making their own decisions so, well, you know what that means" she says with a smirk pulling at her lips.

"Oh really? What exactly does that mean?" I ask her with a smile and she brings her lips down to mine.

"Well, it would probably start something like this." She smirks and then the kiss continues.

We spend the day lazing around and enjoy our peaceful day in each other's company. When it's time for dinner Aria reminds me that we are going out with her mother and call her to see what time she wants to leave at so that Aria has enough time to get ready.

"She said we should leave at like 7:30, she's got a reservation so it must be somewhere nice." Aria says after hanging up the phone.

"Okay, so it's 6:30. You just need to get dressed right?" I ask her taking in her appearance that she has her hair and makeup already long done for the day.

"Yah, I'm going to go find something nice to wear." She answers before walking over to the other side of the room and starting to dig though her suitcase holding up a few dresses as she goes to critique them. I pull out a white dress shirt and a pair of black dress pants sliding them on while Aria still debates over her clothing choice. She turns around with three dresses and goes to walk towards the bathroom to try them all on.

"Wow, don't you look good. When did you change?" she asks with a laugh and walks over as I start to do up my tie.

"Just now" I say with a smile and she walks over right in front of me. She grabs the tie I plan to put on and puts it back into my suitcase before undoing the top two buttons on my shirt.

"Perfect" she admires me and I look at her, even in sweat pants and a tank top she looked beautiful.

Aria POV

I throw two of the dresses on the bed then walk over to the bathroom and try the dark purple one in my hands on. I walk out and see him looking at me. I turn to face the mirror in the room and look it over.

"No." I state, it wasn't at all what I was going for. As I went to walk back and try on the next an idea popped into my mind. "Ezra?" I ask him and since he is already looking at me he answers right away.

"Yah honey?" he says and I strut over to him with a smile.

"Could you help me out of this dress?" I say fluttering my eyelashes at him. I see the corner of his mouth pull up so I turn around allowing him to reach the zipper. Slowly he undoes the dress until the point where it falls to the ground. I turn back around standing there in just my underwear and reach my lips up to his. His hands run along my bare waist and I know that I am tempting him. We kiss for a moment until he pulls away.

"Go try on your other dresses." He chuckles and I reluctantly pull away from him. We had all night.

"Fine" I sigh jokingly and slide into the next one in my pile, a little black dress that looked very promising. I zipped it up and looked at myself in the mirror; I had to say it looked pretty good! The thick straps allowed the dress to fall into a deep neckline that a strapless dress would never pull off and the length looked short without being slutty due to the simple design. Was it maybe a bit too sexy for dinner with my mother? Undoubtedly, but was it too sexy for dinner with my boyfriend, hell no.

"Okay I am making the executive decision on this one and saying yes" he whispers in my ear from behind me.

"Oh are you? Do you get to do that?" I ask him playfully raising my eyebrows as I turn to face him.

"Well, if I had my choice of what I got to take off of you tonight, this would be the winner" he smirks and wiggles his eyebrows at me suggestively making my eyes widen. He was never that straightforward, he would never say that unless he was very clearly joking, but tonight I didn't think he was. It made my heart skip a few beats as he ran his hands along my waist again pulling me in and his lips met mine. As much as I would love to have my way with him right there and then, of course my phone rings.

"Ugh, they better be calling to say there is a fire or flood or the plague, because otherwise this interruption is not acceptable!" I exclaim and stomp away to grab my phone leaving him with a smile on his face.


	22. Chapter 21 not a little girl anymore

**I am so VERY sorry that it took me this long; school is hectic, but no more excuses! I am going to work extra hard this weekend to get some more done so that you won't have this long of a wait again! As always a huge thank you to the very loyal following of this story! Love it so much; please keep reviewing because it keeps me motivated. This chapter is basically fluff leading to some stuff coming….. Hope that you enjoy!**

**Chapter 21**

Aria POV

"Hello?" I answer the phone with harshness to my voice; I was not in the mood to talk.

"Aria, are you on your way? If you haven't left yet we should all take a taxi together." Ella says in a cheery tone.

"Just getting ready to leave, we will meet you in the lobby." I say unenthusiastically and then hang up my phone turning to Ezra.

"We have to go meet my mother." I say in a very unimpressed tone causing him to chuckle at me.

"We are going out for dinner aria, not attending a lecture. It'll be fun, I mean last time I checked you rather enjoyed my company." He joked and I couldn't help but smile at him

"Your company I love, you and my mother, together, not so much. It's just, don't you think it'll be awkward, after this morning and all?" I ask him and he nods at me which I didn't expect. "Thanks for the encouragement" I say with a sarcastic laugh.

"Well, it probably will be a bit uncomfortable. She is your mother and it is your sex life we were talking about, but I'm sure it'll be fine by the end of the night. She just needs to see that you're not a little girl anymore Aria. You are a beautiful, responsible, charismatic woman who I am completely in love with." He says to me while walking over and gathering my hands in his.

"I love you" I smile up at him and peck him on the lips. "Now let's go make the best of this night" I say as I lead him out the door way grabbing my purse on the way out.

Ezra POV

As walk out of the elevator and through the lobby we laugh at a story I had told her hoping to get rid of a bit of the tension she is holding about the night. I spot Mrs. Montgomery waiting for us near the doors and while still holding Aria's hand, her fingers intertwined with mine I lead her in the direction of her mother. I notice that she quickly eyes aria, not impressed with her choice of wardrobe I assume, and I feel a tad guilty knowing that she had taken my very suggestive advice on her wardrobe tonight.

"Hello" Ella says to us as we get nearer and I quickly respond.

"Hello Ella. You look lovely tonight." I say politely which earns an eye roll from aria and a small knowing smile from Ella herself.

"Thank you Ezra, always the gentleman aren't you?" She says with a laugh causing aria to smile at me.

"Always." She giggles then turns back to her mom. "Hi mom, ready to go?" aria says to her, all of us getting off to a good start which I am very pleased with.

"Yes I am, Ezra would you mind getting us a cab?" she says turning to me and I agree without question although I worry that she may have had a motive behind getting me to leave Aria as I walk outside to hail one of the cabs waiting down the street.

Aria POV

"Aria, what are you wearing?" My mother scoffs at me as soon as Ezra is out the door.

"Excuse me?" I say offended by her sudden rudeness, she hadn't been anything but polite when Ezra had been here; I should have known it was just an act.

"Is this what you do to impress him aria? Wear slutty clothing?" she asks with a bite in her tone.

"No! This is not how I impress him. He couldn't care less what I wore. I don't need to show off my body to keep him, he knows that it's all for him to see anyway." I snarl at her, which causes her to give me a dirty look but she doesn't respond. "What? You aren't going to insult me some more? Call me a skank? because I thought you were over this? I thought you understood that we love each other and that he loves me for me. He isn't using me! He cares about me more than anyone else in this world!" I rant and she looks at me apologetically.

"You're right honey. I'm sorry; it's just all so new to me. It's hard to adjust to and you just look so grown up and mature. It's like with him you're this woman with her own life and when I look at you I still want to see how you used to just be my little girl. I'm sorry I didn't mean to insult you. I know he care about you. It's written all over his face." She says and I nod at her before leaning in for a hug which she tightly wrapped her arms around me.

"It's okay mom, I get it. Just please try not to scare him, he's trying really hard for you to like him." I say as I lean away from her.

"I can see that" she laughs and as if on cue he walks through the door his hair very wet, apparently it had started raining whilst we were having our chat and he was getting us a cab.

"I got a cab" he says to us waiting for us to follow out the door, which we do.

"Did you go swimming too babe?" I laugh as we hop into the cab, and my mother joins into the laughter as well.

"Ha ha, no thank you very much. I got a cab in this torrential downpour that the weather network dares to call a 'drizzle'." He says causing me to laugh even more and my mother smiles genuinely as I can see her in the mirror although she is sitting in the front seat giving us some space. She tells the cab driver the directions as we talk in the back seat.

"Well thank you" I say sweetly as I lean in to kiss him. He pecks my lips then leans away cautiously as not to upset my mother. I pout at him and my mother chuckles.

"I'm not going to keep you from kissing her Ezra, after our conversations this morning I would have to assume that kissing isn't out of the ordinary for you two" she jokes and we both blush at her comment. For about twenty minutes we all chatter making casual conversation until we pull up to a very classy restaurant overlooking the water. I can't help but wish my mother wasn't here because I can imagine a perfect date with Ezra happening at a place like this. Ezra opens the door and slides out of the cab then offering me his hand to follow. I slide out and kiss his check as I stand up.

"Thank you darling" I say softly to him.

"My pleasure" he responds and then walks to the cab drivers window pulling his wallet out. My mother comes around at the same time with money in her hand to see Ezra already paying the man.

"Ezra you didn't have to pay" she says and he shakes his head at her.

"It's the least I can do" he says with a smile walking back to me and intertwining his fingers with mine so we can walk hand in hand.


	23. Chapter 22 drunk

**Hi everyone! So sorry about the wait but I do have good news, the next two chapters are done so there won't be like a week and a half until you can read more! Also I made sure this chapter was extra long to make up for it! I do have to mention the fact that I didn't get very many reviews last chapter though, so I really hope to hear from more of you again! PLEASE review, it makes me very happy and keeps me writing! Hope you enjoy... oh and I think you will all be very excited for the next chapter... Can you guess what's going to happen? :) wink wink nudge nudge...**

Chapter 22- drunk

Ezra POV

We walk into the restaurant and her mother tells the maître de the reservation name which makes me a bit uncomfortable, if I was out with Aria alone the reservation certainly wouldn't be under Montgomery. Quickly we are led to our table by the window which overlooks the water. It was a very romantic setting but unfortunately this wasn't a date per say. It was Aria, her mother, and I, out for dinner. We sit there uncomfortably and unsure of what to say while we look at the menus.

"I'm going to touch up in the bathroom; can you order me a glass of white wine please?" Ella says looking at me before standing up.

"yah, of course" I say and then turn my attention back to Aria as her mother walks away, perhaps simply trying to give us a few minutes alone to get conversation going. Once her mother is gone we instantly start chatting away as always and conversation carries effortlessly, until someone reaches our table.

"Hello, my name is marshal and I will be your server this evening. Do you know what you would like to drink?" The very polite waiter says, although I can't tell if it is genuine or not.

"A glass of white wine and two glasses of Pinot noir for us please" I tell him ordering Ella's drink and two of Aria's favorite. He nods at me before walking away and Aria and I carry on with our conversation. The drinks arrive in only a minute and Aria lifts her glass to take a sip while I tell her about a play I had seen on Broadway years ago.

"Aria, what are you drinking?" I hear Ella say suddenly which startles us both considering we had been too wrapped up in each other to even notice her approaching.

"Pinot noir, would you like a sip?" Aria answers thoughtlessly, not seeing anything wrong with what she was doing as she was so used to drinking a glass of wine when we had dinner. She would have thought it was strange if I hadn't have ordered it for her and I simply never gave it a second thought as it came as first nature to do so. I can see that was not what Ella was implying. There was a bite in her tone, and she was not impressed that I had ordered alcohol for her underage daughter.

"Aria, I don't want you drinking" Ella said in a quiet but stern voice as she sat down.

"I'm sorry Ella I shouldn't have ordered it for her." I say quickly but Aria has to get her voice in, as usual. I love that she is so very opinionated and that she would never let anyone push her around but in some cases I wish she could just bite her tongue.

"Mom it's a glass of wine, I always have one with dinner. I'm not going to get drunk and it's not a big deal." Aria says calmly to her but I can tell she still doesn't look impressed.

" You shouldn't be going out to restaurants and having wine aria! You are sixteen not twenty six!" she growls at her then turns her gaze to me making Aria frustrated.

"If I wanted to get drunk I wouldn't have a glass of red wine in my hand I would have a bottle of vodka. And I wouldn't be sitting in a classy restaurant with my twenty three year old boyfriend I would be out at some party at noel khan's cabin hooking up with a boy in the bushes! Why can't you understand that I don't want that! Why can't you see that I am happy with Ezra! He makes me happy, and he keeps me safe, and he would never hurt me! We are responsible and mature. I'm not a child! We have already had this conversation mom, about different thing sure, but it always comes down to you thinking I am a little girl and I'm not... I understand it's hard for you, you just found out about all this but please, try to understand" Aria says keeping her voice calm and honestly just trying to make her mother see what we have is real.

"I'm trying Aria." her mom says and looks to her where Aria reaches across the table and holds her mom's hand in her own, giving her a small smile.

Aria POV

We order our dinner and eat with little trouble the rest of the night until my mother starts to look down at her phone anxiously.

"Mom what's wrong?" I ask her and her head snaps up, she probably had thought she was being discreet about whatever the situation was.

"Well, I didn't want to bring this up but… you both know you have to go back to rosewood. I mean it's Monday now, I assume you called in sick for work Ezra?" my mom says turning between us and he nods.

"Yah, this morning when you and Aria were out for breakfast I called and said I had a family emergency and I would be back as soon as I could." He tells her and she nods to him.

"Byron said you weren't there today. Which I clearly knew but my point was people are noticing." She said and I see a hint of worry in his eyes then a whole new though occurred to me.

"Dad! Did you tell him you're with me! You didn't tell him about me and Ezra did you! You wouldn't?" I yelp suddenly fearful for what I had thought was now a very solid relationship again.

"I told him I found you and that we were going to take a few days and work out everything. And no Aria I didn't tell him about Ezra, I wouldn't do that. You will have to, at some point but that is something the two of you need to do. Which brings me to another topic... What do you plan to do back in rosewood now?" she asks and I look to him unsure. Were we ready to come out to the whole town? I wanted more than anything to be able to walk to the coffee shop with him hand in hand, or to go down to the old theater and enjoy a night out but that would have consequences. Serious consequences, people wouldn't look at us the same. I knew that they would call me names, slut, whore, skank and I could deal with that but I wasn't sure I could handle the things they would say about Ezra. People would make very untrue accusations which could very well get him fired and then what would happen?

"Can he get fired? I mean they can't arrest him or anything now right? The age of consent in Pennsylvania is sixteen, so that's fine but the whole student teacher thing… they can't do anything about it at this point right?" I ask my mother hoping she can give me a solid answer.

"I would say the student teacher thing is past the point of them calling the cops, since there is no proof. But I'm not sure what Hollis would think about the situation. I don't think that they can fire him over his personal life but this might be an exception…"

"Aria I don't want you worrying about that. If you're ready to tell people then so am I. Although I think we might have to start with your father." he says to me and I know that this worries him.

"Ezra. It's fine. What's the worst he could do? If he says that he won't let me see you I will leave. It's that simple." I tell him reassuringly rubbing my hand along his leg.

"Whoa, no it's not. You are not going anywhere Aria. You need to come home and go to school." my mom says quickly her maternal side going into automatic.

"Mom I will not let him say I can't see Ezra. That's not an option." I tell her in a growl which causes Ezra to hold my hand tightly begging me to stop.

"What if we just cross that bridge once we get there?" he suggests and I give him a dirty look. We need a plan this is not the kind of situation you can just run with.

"Aria, maybe he's right. Let's just let this go for now? Are you two even sure that you want to tell everyone when you get back?" my mom says in a condescending tone that I am unimpressed with.

"We will talk about it tonight. In private" I say trying not to sound too bitter.

"Right." She mutters and the atmosphere at the table becomes tense as it was at the start of dinner.

"So when are we planning to go back to rosewood? Tomorrow?" Ezra says interrupting the silence.

"Well I was hoping tonight perhaps?" my mom says slowly knowing that my reaction will instantly be disagreeable.

"No, it's late. It'll still be hours until we get home, we might as well get a good sleep tonight and leave tomorrow." I say lying through my teeth because if I have it my way I will not be getting much sleep at all tonight. This is my chance for me and Ezra to finally have sex, and I didn't plan to waste it. Once we went home my mom would want me to be home for curfew still and I really don't want to have to leave part way through the night the first time we have sex. I wanted this to be perfect. My mother looks at me knowingly and I look back at her with soft hopeful eyes. After a few moments she begrudgingly nods her head knowing what she is allowing and I smile at her.


	24. Chapter 23 frowned upon

**As** **always I would like to thank all of you for your lovely reviews! This is the moment you have been asking for so I hope I did it justice! Truth be told I have to tell you I believe this story is coming close to the end... I will have a better idea of how many more chapters with the next posting but most likely one or two. So I hope you enjoy the story as always and let me know what you think :) **

Chapter 23- which I believe is frowned upon

Aria POV

We pay for dinner, my mother paying for hers and Ezra paying for both mine and his and walk out to catch a cab. When a yellow car pulls up to the curb she turns to us knowing that we are following her.

"Do you mind if I take the first one?" she asks me with a smirk.

"Are we not sharing one back to the hotel?" Ezra asks oblivious to what my mother and I had wordlessly agreed to.

"No, I think I'll give you two some privacy." She says as she opens the door and goes to slide in the cab.

"Night mom" I call to her and Ezra says goodnight as well. I smile at him and then see another cab pull up which we walk over to.

"What was that? Did I miss something?" he asks me confused by my mother's choice to ride home alone.

"No, nothing important" I say as we slide into the back seat of the car. Quickly my lips land on his considering the fact that I had been waiting all night it a rough kiss, full of desire. He runs his tongue along my lips when I allow it into my mouth and I knot my fingers into his hair clasping him to me.

"Excuse me. Where are you two going?" the cab driver barks at us and Ezra pulls away to give him directions yet I press my lips to his neck sucking on the skin gently causing him to smile and chuckle as he talks.

"Now aren't you naughty tonight" he says raising his eyebrows at me after instructing the taxi driver on where the hotel is. I nod my head at him but don't say another word before straddling him and pressing my lips onto his again. We continue our steamy make out but as I go to unbutton his shirt his shakes his head.

"Aria we are in a taxi" he laughs pulling lips away momentarily.

"Fine…" I mutter before he presses his lips to mine once again. In only a few short minutes we find ourselves at the hotel which is brought to our attention by the taxi driver since we were far too involved in each other to have noticed we had stopped moving.

"Thank you" Ezra says as he pulls cash out of his wallet giving the man a generous tip for his… tolerance of us which causes a smile to grace his lips for the first time which I had seen, not that I really had given the time of day to that man.

"Have a nice night!" he yells out the window smirking at out haste to get into the hotel.

"We will!" I call back as I grab Ezra's hand and run into the hotel and through the lobby dragging him to the elevator which opens instantly. He pushes me back into the small space and against the wall where his lips meet my neck as the door is sliding shut, yet somehow a man carrying a little girl in his arms as well as pushing her stroller, manages to get to it before it closes entirely, exposing us to the lobby.

"Sorry!" he exclaims as he spins around, which I am happy with but Ezra for some reason pulls away from me and turns to the man.

"No our apologies. We can hold off until we get to our room." He chuckles and the man laughs as well.

"We are only on the first floor, if you don't mind. I would take the stairs but this thing is a bit heavy." He says motioning to the huge stroller he's pushing.

"No it's no trouble, right aria." He says looking at my pout.

"Yah, no trouble at all" I repeat fakely and the doors close leaving Ezra, I, the man and the little girl in the same place where I find myself getting antsy feeling his body so close to mine. The elevator dings and the man walks out, smiling back at us. The second the door closes I throw myself at Ezra, my lips on his and his hands twist around my waist crushing me to him. His hands lead down to my thighs so I jump up onto his waist where he holds me up effortlessly and he turns us over so that I am pressed against the elevator wall. The door dings again at level three, leading us closer to our room and still carrying me he leads us down the hall. We get to the door and I reach into his back pocket pulling his wallet out and searching for the room key while he pushes me up against the door a presses his lips to my neck again causing me to moan and have extreme difficulty focusing on what I am looking for.

"Time out. I've got to open the door or we will be doing it in the hall, which I believe is frowned upon." I say out of breath and he chuckles at me while he lets me down. As I turn to open the door his hands wrap around my waist from behind. "You really can't keep your hands off me can you?" I giggle at him as I spin around and grab his hand walking backwards into the room.

"Not even if I tried, not that I would ever want to" he said and then I brought him closer to me again. I started to unbutton his shirt as we stood there and after that fell to the oddly patterned hotel carpet his hands went to the zipper on my dress. That as well fell to the ground and sat in a pile as we went to the bed. We both shuffled out of our shoes and he crawled up onto the bed and I followed after him not wanting his body away from mine for even a second. I positioned myself on top of him and his came lips crashing onto mine once again. They moved roughly but lovingly and I could tell that he was just as tired of waiting as I was. He wanted me and I wanted him. My hands found their way down to the waist of his pants and after undoing the buttons bring down the zipper. He slides his way out of them as we continue to kiss and he rolls us over so that he is on top.

"Aria, are you sure? You definitely want to do this?" He says softly to me and I nod.

"I am more sure about this then I have ever been about anything. I want you Ezra." I say looking deeply into his eyes.

"I love you aria" he whispers leaning in to undo my bra.

"I love you too" I smile at him. As the night continues my bra and both of our underwear have wound up thrown around the room and we roll around in bed making passionate love.


End file.
